^/^'^f 


.y  A  ^ 


GIFT  or 

PUBLISHER 


Mu^, 


•atf^KEUEY.  CALiFORN^^ 


THE    CAVE    BOY 

OF  THE  AGE    OF   STONE 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/caveboyofageofstOOmcinrich 


THE    CAVE    BOY 

OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 


BY 


MARGARET  A.    McINTYRE 


NEW  YORK 
D.   APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 


Copyright,  1907,  by 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


Dedicated  to  My  Mother 


CONTENTS 


OHAFTBB  FAOB 

I. — Sthongarm's  Family 1 

II. — ^The  Needle,  the  Glub,  and  the  Bow     .       .  13 

III. — ^The  Taming  of  the  Dog 25 

IV. — How  Strong  ARM  Hunted  a  Bear  and  a  Lion  31 

V. — ^The  Old  Ax  Maker  Visits  His  Daughter     .  37 

VI. — ^Thb  Coming  of  Fire 43 

VII.— The  Cave  Tiger 52 

VIII. — The  Making  of  Stone  Weapons.       ...  57 

IX. — ^At  the  Gravel  Pit 65 

X. — ^A  Summer  Camp 69 

XI. — Thorn   Meets   the   Children   of   the   Shell 

Mounds 76 

Xn. — ^At  the  Home  of  the  Shell  Mound  People  .  83 

XIII. — ^Thorn  Learns  to  Swim 92 

XTV. — The  Feast  of  Mammoth's  Meat  ....  97 
XV. — ^The  Red  Men  of  Our  Own  Country  in  the 

Stone  Age 108 

XVI. — ^How  Stone  Weapons  of  the  Cave  Men  Were 

First  Found 112 

ix 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  BAGTB 

XVII. — ^How  THE  Earth  Looked  When  the  Shell  Men 

AND  the  Cave  Men  Lived     .       .       .       ,119 
XVin. — How  Early  Men  Believed  that  All  Things 

THAT  Move  Are  Alive 124 

XIX. — The  People  of  Our  Time  Who  Were  Most 

Like  the  Cave  Men 126 

SUGGESTIONS  TO  TEACHERS 129 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE 
AGE  OF  STONE 


CHAPTER  I 


strongakm's  family 


It  was  spring,  thousands  of  years  ago. 
Little  boys  snatched  the  April  violets,  and  with 
them  painted  purple  stripes  upon  their  arms  and 
faces.    Then  they  played  that  enemies  came. 

^^Be  afraid !''  shouted  one,  frowning;  and  he 
stamped  his  foot  and  shook  his  fist  at  the 
play  enemies. 

^^I  am  fine!'^  called  the  other;  and  he  held 
his  head  high,  and  took  big  steps,  and  looked 
this  way  and  that. 

The  Uttle  brothers  were  named  Thorn  and 
Pineknot.  Their  baby  sister  had  no  name. 
The  children  looked  rough  and  wild  and  strong 
and  glad.     The  sun  had  made  them  brown, 

1 


THE  CkVE  'BOY'Oi^  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

the  wind  had  tangled  their  hair.  Their  clothes 
were  only  bits  of  fox  skin.  Their  home  was 
the  safe  rock  cave  in  the  side  of  the  hilL 

Near  the  children  a  Kttle  goat  was  eating 
the  sweet  new  grass.  She  was  tied  with  a 
string  made  of  skin.  Thorn  stroked  her  and, 
laughing,  said, 

^^Let  us  put  the  baby  on  the  goat's  back  and 
see  her  run.'' 

'^Oh,  that  would  be  fun!"  cried  Pineknot, 
and  he  ran  and  imtied  the  goat. 

Laughing,  Thorn  put  the  baby  on  the  goat's 
back.  The  Httle  fingers  climg  to  the  goat's 
hair. 

Then  Thorn  struck  the  goat  and  shouted, 
^^Run!" 

The  goat  ran;  the  baby  laughed;  Pineknot 
danced  and  clapped  his  hands.  All  at  once, 
the  goat  stood  up  on  her  hind  legs.  The  baby 
fell  off,  and  rolled  over  and  over  on  the  ground. 
She  cried  out,  though  she  was  not  hurt.  And 
the  boys  laughed  and  shouted  till  the  woods 
ran^. 

2 


STRONGARM'S  FAMILY 

a 


After  a  while  Pineknot  thought  of  the  goat; 
he  had  not  tied  her. 

^^ Where  is  the  Httle  goat?    Oh,  there  she  is 

3 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

up  among  the  rocks.  She  did  not  run  away, 
Thorn/^ 

^^No/^  said  Thorn,  '^she  will  not  run  away 
now,  for  we  pet  her  and  give  her  things  to  eat. 
Mother  feeds  her,  too.'' 

'^Oh,  but  she  was  a  wild  one  when  father 
brought  her  home,''  said  Pineknot.  ^^ Father 
killed  the  mother  goat  and  caught  the  young 
one  alive.  He  said  that  he  would  keep  her 
at  the  cave.  Then  some  day  when  he  had 
killed  nothing  on  the  hunt,  and  we  were 
himgry,  he  would  kill  the  goat." 

^^We  will  ask  father  not  to  kill  her,  but  let  us 
keep  her  for  a  pet,"  said  Thorn. 

As  the  boys  were  talking,  from  far  away 
through  the  forest  came  a  big,  merry  song: 

"The  wild  horse  ran  very  fast, 
But  I  ran  faster! 
The  wild  horse  ran  very  fast, 
But  I  ran  faster!'' 

'^It  is  father  coming  from  the  hunt,"  said 
Thorn,  jumping  to  his  feet. 

4 


STRONQAEM'S  FAMILY 

'^He  is  bringing  wild  horse  meat.  Good, 
good!^^  cried  Pineknot. 

Thorn  threw  the  baby  on  his  back,  and 
together  the  boys  ran  into  the  forest  to  meet 
their  father. 

The  forest — oh,  it  was  beautiful!  The  trunks 
of  the  old  trees  were  big  and  rough  and  mossy. 
And  there  were  tall  ferns  and  gray  rocks  and 
httle  brooks,  and  there  was  a  sweet  smell  of 
rotting  leaves. 

"The  wild  horse  ran  very  fast, 
But  I  ran  faster !'' 

still  sang  the  young  hunter,  shaking  his  red 
hair  gaily.  He  was  not  tall,  but  his  legs  were 
big,  for  he  ran  after  the  wild  horse  and  deer 
and  ox.  And  his  arms  were  big,  because  he 
threw  a  great  spear  and  a  stone  ax.  His  name 
was  Strongarm. 

The  boys  came  rimning  up  to  their  father. 
They  pointed  to  the  meat  on  his  shoulder, 
and  laughed  and  shouted  and  clapped  their 
hands. 

5 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 


*'We  shall  not  go  hungry  to-day  I 
We  shall  not  go  hungry  to-day  I'' 

they  sang  as  they  danced  along. 

6 


STRONGARM'S  FAMILY 

^^Ho,  ho,  ho!'^  sang  Strongarm  to  his  wife, 
as  he  went  into  the  cave.  He  threw  the  horse 
meat  upon  the  floor  with  a  loud  laugh,  and  lay 
down  on  a  bear  skin  to  rest. 

The  cave  was  a  big  room  with  a  high  roof. 
The  floor  was  of  dirt  and  very  hard.  The 
walls  were  hmestone  rock  in  beautiful  rough 
layers,  one  upon  another.  From  the  roof  the 
limestone  hung  in  long  pointed  shapes,  Uke 
icicles. 

A  fire  burned  brightly  on  the  floor,  while 
the  smoke  rose  slowly  and  went  out  at  a  hole 
in  the  roof.  The  walls  and  the  roof  were 
blackened  by  smoke. 

Strongarm's  young  wife  was  named  Burr. 
She  was  glad  when  she  saw  the  meat.  She 
took  her  stone  knife  quickly  and  cut  up  the 
meat,  and  threw  the  pieces  on  the  hot  coals. 
While  the  fire  blazed  and  snapped  and  cooked 
the  meat,  the  boys  looked  on  with  hungry 
eyes. 

When  the  meat  was  done.  Burr  pulled  it  from 
the   fire   with    a   long   stick.    The   boys    and 

7 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STOITE 


Strongarm  snatched  it  up  and  tore  it  to  pieces 
with  their  white  teeth. 

^^Um-m!  how  good  and  tender  and  juicy!'' 

said  the  boys,  grin- 
ning, and  smacking 
their  Ups. 

When  the  meat 
was  all  gone,  the 
bones  were  broken 
and  the  sweet  mar- 
row scraped  out  and 
eaten;  for  that  was 
good,  too. 

^J\        ^H^^  1     \      While  the  fam- 

\M  <l^^^m^mL     ^  j  jjy  ^^  g^ijj  ^^^^ 

ing,  a  big  black 
bear  came  along. 
He  smelled  the  meat, 
and  put  his  great 
rough  head  in  at  the 
door  and  sniffed. 
''Bear!"  shouted  Strongarm,  jimaping  to  his 
feet. 

S 


STRONGARM'S  FAMILY 

Burr  and  the  boys  cried  out  and  quickly  ran 
away  to  hide.  Strongarm  snatched  a  blazing 
log  and  struck  the  bear.  He  was  burned  and 
hurt,  and  he  grew  angry.  He  stood  up  on  his 
hind  legs  and  growled  and  showed  his  sharp 
teeth. 

Strongarm  snatched  his  ax  and  made  for  the 
bear,  but  he  had  gone.  His  growls  sounded 
farther  and  farther  away.  Still  Strongarm 
stood  with  his  ax  ready,  his  heart  thumping 
and  his  eyes  big.  When  he  saw  that  the  bear 
was  not  coming  back,  he  dropped  his  ax  with 
a  gruff  laugh.  Then  Burr  and  the  boys  came 
creeping  out  of  their  holes.  And  they  all 
laughed  and  talked  at  once,  teUing  how  scared 
they  had  been. 

The  growls  of  the  bear  still  sounded  through 
the  woods,  so  the  boys  ran  to  the  door  to  see 
him. 

^^ There  he  goes!^^  cried  Pineknot  with  wide 
eyes,  pointing. 

^'How  big  he  is!^^  cried  Thorn;  ^^I  shall  make 
his  picture.'^ 

9 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OP  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

Thorn  ran  back  into  the  cave  and  quickly 
threw  a  pineknot  on  the  fire.  It  blazed  up 
and  made  all  the  cave  Ught.    He  broke  a  piece 


of  limestone  from  the  wall  and  picked  up  a 
sharp  stone  from  the  floor.  Then  he  sat  down 
by  the  fire  to  make  his  picture  of  the  bear. 

10 


STRONGARM'S  FAMILY 

After  a  while  he  held  up  the  piece  of  limestone 
with  the  picture  scratched  on  it. 

'^O  mother/'  said  Pineknot,  laughing  hard, 
''see  Thorn's  picture  of  the  bear.  It  shows 
his  big  body  and  his  long  head  and  his  little 
ears.'' 

''That  is  the  very  bear  that  made  us  run," 
said  Biu-r,  laughing. 

All  this  time  Strongarm  had  been  making  a 
picture  of  wild  horses.  He  now  held  up  the 
picture,  scratched  on  a  piece  of  deer  antler. 

"See,  this  horse  has  his  ears  up,"  he  said. 
"He  heard  me  coming.  Here  I  am  with  my 
spear." 

Burr  and  the  boys  crowded  round  and  said, 
"Oh!" 

While  Strongarm  and  the  boys  were  making 
pictures,  the  baby  had  been  tumbling  about 
on  the  floor.  She  crept  around  or  pulled  her- 
self to  her  feet  by  holding  to  the  rough  places 
in  the  wall.  After  a  while  she  grew  sleepy; 
then  her  mother  took  her  in  her  arms  *£ind  sang 
this  song: 

11 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

"Little  child! 
Little  sweet  one! 
Little  girl! 
Though  a  baby, 
Soon  a-hunting  after  berries 
Will  be  going. 
Little  girl! 
Little  sweet  onel 
Little  child!" 

The  baby  went  to  sleep,  and  Burr  laid  her 
on  a  bear  skin  on  the  floor.  Soon  afterwards 
Pineknot  fell  asleep  on  another  skin,  and  in  a 
Uttle  while  Thorn  lay  beside  him.  Then  Burr 
put  ashes  over  the  coals,  while  Strongarm 
threw  burning  logs  before  the  door.  Soon  al] 
was  quiet  in  the  cave.  The  cave  folks  had 
gone  to  sleep. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  NEEDLE,  THE  CLUB,  AND  THE  BOW 

Nearly  every  day  Strongarm  went  out  to 
hunt.  But  he  did  not  always  bring  back  meat 
to  the  cave,  for  he  could  not  always  kill  an 
animal.  But  sometimes  he  brought  home  the 
meat  of  deer  or  bison,  and  then  again  it  was 
that  of  mammoth  or  ox. 

Burr  always  took  the  meat  when  Strongarm 
brought  it  home,  and  sometimes  she  cut  ten- 
dons from  it.  A  tendon  is  a  strong  white 
cord  that  fastens  a  muscle  to  a  bone.  There 
are  long  tendons  in  the  backs  of  big  animals. 
Burr  cut  these  out  sometimes  and  hung  them 
in  the  sun  to  dry.  When  they  were  dry,  she 
broke  the  thin  outside  skin  and  tore  the  ten- 
don apart  with  her  fingers.  It  came  to  pieces 
in  many  Kttle  threads.     Burr  took  some  of  the 

13 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

little  threads  and  twisted  them  together  and 
made  a  good  strong  thread  for  sewing. 

One  day  she  sat  before  the  door  of  her  cave 
sewing  together  skins  of  wild  oxen. 


'^What  is  the  big  skin  for,  mother?''  asked 
Pineknot,  who  ran  up. 

''To  lay  on  sticks  above  our  door/'  said 
Burr.  ''Then,  even  when  it  rains,  we  can  sit 
outside." 

"Oh,  that  will  be  fine!"  said  the  boy. 
14 


THE  NEEDLE,  THE  CLUB,  AND  THE  BOW 

Burr  went  on  with  her  sewing.  She  made 
holes  along  the  edge  of  the  skins  with  a  sharp 
stone.  Then  she  threaded  her  needle.  She  put 
it  through  a  hole  in  each  of  the  skins  and  pulled 
it  tight.  She  worked  on  in  this  way  and 
sewed  the  skins  together. 

^^ Where  did  you  get  the  needle,  mother?'' 
Pineknot  asked  next,  looking  at  it  closely. 

''I  made  it/'  said  Burr.    ^'When  your  father 
brings  birds  or  deer  from  the  hunt,  I  some- 
times take  a  little  bone  from  the  ^^^ 
leg  of  a  deer  or  the  wing  of  a  bird.        ^^V 
This  I  put  in  the  cave  to  dry.  ^ 

When  it  is  dry,  I  rub  it  smooth  with  sand- 
stone. Then  I  must  have  a  hole  in 
one  end  to  carry  the  thread.  I  take 
a  sharp  stone  and  tiun  it  round  and 
round  on  the  Httle  bone,  pressing 
down.  It  is  not  hard  work.  In  that  way  I 
make  a  smooth  hole  in  my  needle. 

''But  when  my  mother  sewed,"  Burr  went 
on,  ''she  used  a  httle  bone  to  push  the  thread 
through  the  skins.     One  day  she  found  a  Uttle 

15 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

bone  with  a  hole  in  it  and  took  it  home.  She 
put  her  thread  through  the  hole,  wondering 
how  it  would  do,  and  began  to  sew.  Soon 
there  was  a  crowd  of  women  roxmd  her,  point- 
ing and  saying,  'Oh,  oh!^  while  the  Uttle  bone 
carried  the  thread/' 

''It  must  be  fun  to  sew  with  a  needle, '^  said 
Pineknot. 

Thorn  was  nearby  making  bone  whistles  and 
marrow  scrapers,  and  soon  Strongarm  came 
up  dragging  a  little  tree.  He 
threw  down  his  old  hunting 
club  and  said,  '^It  is  broken. 
I  will  make  a  new  one.'' 
With  his  stone  ax  he  hacked  off  the  top  and 
roots  of  the  tree;  then  he  stripped  the  bark 
from  the  small  end,  and  rubbed  it  with  sand- 
stone. 

"It  must  be  smooth  or  it  will  hiuii  my  hand," 

he  said  to  the  boys  who  stood  watching  him. 

"In  the  old  days,"  he  said,  rubbing  away, 

"the  cave  men  had  nothing  to  fight  with  but  a 

club.     Before  they  had  even  that,"  he  went 

16 


THE  NEEDLE,  THE  CLUB,  AND  THE  BOW 

on,  grinning,  ^Hhey  fought  with  nails  and 
teeth,  or  with  a  stick  or  a  stone  snatched  from 
the  ground/^  Then  laughing  loud,  he  added, 
^^No  wonder  that  in  the  old  days  people  Uved 
in  trees,  and  ran  if  they  saw  a  wildcat/^ 

'^I  should  be  sorry  if  you  had  nothing  to 
hunt  with  but  a  club,  father,^'  said  Pineknot, 
making  a  long  face.  ^^We  should  go  hungry 
oftener  than  we  do  now/^ 

After  they  had  gone  into  the  cave,  the  boys 
began  to  play  with  the  baby.  In  fun  they 
pushed  her  into  the  room  behind  the  one  they 
Uved  in.  She  cried  out,  because  she  was  scared 
at  the  darkness. 

'^How  loud  her  voice  soimds  in  there,''  said 
Thorn. 

^^What  is  the  rest  of  the  cave  like,  father?'' 
asked  Pineknot.     ^^Is  it  very  big  ?" 

^'Yes,  it  goes  far  back  into  the  hill,"  said 
Strongarm.  '^I  have  never  been  to  the  end  of 
it,  myself." 

^^Show  it  to  us,  father,"  said  Thorn;  and  he 
ran  to  get  a  biuning  knot. 

17 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

Strongarm  took  the  torch  and  led  the  way 
into  the  next  room.  He  held  the  torch  up  high. 
The  hght  looked  small  and  dim  in  the  darkness 
of  the  big  room.  They  went  on  and  came  to 
room  after  room  and  to  long  halls.  Some 
places  were  narrow  and  low,  so  that  they  had 
to  crawl  on  hands  and  knees  to  get  through; 
and  all  the  walls  and  floors  were  wet  and 
slippery. 

Everjrwhere  in  the  cave  the  limestone  showed 
beautiful  rough  layers.  In  all  the  rooms  long 
pointed  rocks  hung  from  the  roof  or  stood 
up  from  the  floor.  Water  dripped  from  each 
pointed  rock  above,  and  fell  on  the  pointed 
rock  just  beneath.  In  many  places  two  pointed 
rocks  touched  each  other  and  formed  a  great, 
rough,  beautiful  pillar.  In  some  of  the  rooms 
the  walls  and  pillars  were  lovely  and  white, 
ghstening  in  the  torch  light. 

The  boys  looked  at  all  these  things  in 
wonder. 

When  at  last  they  had  come  back  to  their 
own  room,  Pineknot  asked,  ^^  Father,  what  is 

IS 


THE  NEEDLE,  THE  CLUB,  AND  THE  BOW 

the  water  that  we  heard  trickling  in  the  cave?" 

^^It  is  a  stream.  It  used  to  come  down 
through  that  hole/^  said  Strongarm,  pointing 
to  the  smoke-hole.  '^But  afterwards  it  went 
down  another  way.'^ 

He  sat  thinking  for  a  while.  Then  he  said, 
^^When  I  fought  with  the  other  young  hunters 
and  carried  off  your  mother,  I  wanted  a  cave 
to  bring  her  to.  I  came  to  look  at  this  one. 
Bears  were  living  here  then.  But  one  evening 
while  they  were  all  away,  I  came  in  and  made 
a  fire  at  the  door.'^ 

Strongarm  laughed  long  and  loud,  and  the 
rest  laughed  to  hear  him. 

^^  Since  then  the  cave  has  been  mine,"  he 
went  on.  '^Well,  you  should  have  seen  the 
floor!  It  was  covered  with  old  bones  that  the 
bears  had  brought  in  to  gnaw.  I  threw  them 
all  out  and  broke  off  the  rocks  that  stood  up 
from  the  floor.  That  gave  more  room.  Then 
I  brought  your  mother  here." 

^'It  has  made  us  a  good  safe  home,"  said 
Burr,  nodding  her  head. 

19 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

After  a  while  Thorn  jumped  up  and  said,  ^^I 
want  some  honey.' ^ 

He  took  a  burning  stick  from  the  fire  and  ran 
out.  He  walked  through  the  forest  and  looked 
and  Ustened.  At  last  he  saw  bees  go  into  a  hole 
in  a  hollow  tree. 

^^Here  is  my  bee  treeT'  he  cried,  waving  his 
torch. 

Bees  were  in  a  crowd  about  the  hole,  crawl- 
ing over  each  other,  and  going  in  and  coming 
out.  Thorn  could  hear  them  humming  from 
where  he  stood.  He  swung  his  torch  from  his 
arm;  then,  hand  over  hand,  up  the  tree  he 
went. 

When  he  came  to  the  bees'  nest,  he  threw 
his  leg  over  a  branch.  He  swung  the  smoking 
stick  back  and  forth.  The  bees  flew  off  hum- 
ming angrily.  Thorn  quickly  broke  off  the 
yellow  honeycombs  and  put  them  into  his  bag. 
Then  down  the  tree  he  sUd,  followed  by  the 
angry  bees. 

*^0h,  oh,  oh!''  he  cried,  as  he  ran  like  a  deer. 

When  he  went  into  the  cave  with  the  wild 

20 


THE  NEEDLE,  THE  CLUB,  AND  THE  BOW 

honey,  the  baby  held  out  her  httle  hands.    He 
gave  her  some  and  said,  ^^You  are  sweet.    You 
are  honey.^^ 
So  the  baby  came  to  be  called  Honey. 


At  sundown,  the  boys  went  out  into  the 
woods  to  set  the  traps.  A  beautiful  mother 
deer  and  her  fawn  were  drinking  at  a  brook. 
Crickets  sang  under  old  bark,  and  frogs  on  the 

21 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OP  STONE 


edge  of  the  pond.    And  birds  were  singing  their 
low  sweet  evening  songs. 

The  little  hunters  went  straight  on  from  trap 
to  trap.     But  they  found  no  fox  or  wolf  or 

wildcat  in  any  of 
them.  They  were 
sorry.  One  trap 
was  sprung. 

^^  Something  has 
been  here,  and  the 
meat  is  gone/^  said 
Pineknot.  ''We 
must  set  the  trap 
again.'^ 

Thorn  quickly 
bent  down  a  little 
hickory,  and  tied  a  string  to  the  top.  Then 
he  raised  one  end  of  a  big  rock  and  put  a 
loop  of  the  string  around  it. 

Pineknot  was  busy  setting  a  trigger  under  the 
rock.  All  this  time,  Thorn  stood  by,  plajdng 
with  the  string,  pulling  it  and  letting  it  go, 
puUing  and  letting  go. 

22 


THE  NEEDLE,  THE  CLUB,  AND  THE  BOW 

^'Listen/^  he  said,  '^it  sings  like  the  wind/^ 
Pineknot  had  a  stick  in  his  hand  and,  for 
fun,   set  it  against  the  string.    When  Thorn 
let  the  string  go,  the  stick  was  shot  out  of 


I>  *  r  V 


Pineknot^s  hand,  and  against  his  bare  body. 

He  yelled,  and  Thorn  opened  his  eyes  in  wonder. 

Pineknot  rubbed  the  place,  but  picked  up  the 

23 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

stick,  stood  aside,  and  set  it  as  before.  Then 
he  said,  ^^Do  that  again/' 

Thorn  did  it  again,  and  the  stick  flew  among 
the  trees.  Over  and  over  again  they  tried  it, 
and  every  time  the  flying  string  threw  the 
stick. 

''Now,''  said  Thorn,  ''I  shall  bend  a  httle 
branch  as  that  tree  was  bent,  and  I  shall  tie  a 
string  to  the  ends." 

He  did  so;  and  all  the  way  home  he  kept 
shooting  with  his  little  bow,  and  wondering 
about  it. 


24 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   TAMING   OF   THE   DOG 

Early  one  morning  Strong- 
arm  went  out  to  hunt .  Cat- 
tle with  wild  eyes  were  eat- 
ing grass  on  the  edge  of  the  wood.  Strongarm 
dropped  to  his  knees  and  slowly,  carefully, 
crawled  through  the  bushes  toward  them. 

^^Just  a  little  nearer,  and  I  will  throw  my 
spear  !^^  he  thought. 

A  dry  branch  snapped  beneath  him! 
The  wild  cattle  threw  up  their  heads,  and 
with  a  hurry  of  feet  were  soon  lost  to  sight. 

Frowning,  the  hunter  got  up  from  his  knees 
and  walked  on.  He  saw  a  herd  of  mammoths, 
but  he  could  not  kill  one  of  the  big  hairy  ele- 
phants alone,  so  he  turned  away.  He  hunted 
all  day  long.  He  saw  plenty  of  wild  animals, 
but  he  could  not  get  near  enough  to  kill  one. 

25 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

He  saw  wild  ducks  and  grouse,  but  he  had  not 
brought  his  sling. 

^^Must  I  go  hungry  to-day?"  he  growled, 
frowning. 

From  far  off  came  the  yelping  of  dogs. 

'^The  pack  is  himting!'^  he  shouted,  with  a 
roaring  laugh.  ^^I  will  follow  the  wild  dogs 
and  take  some  of  the  meat  they  leave!" 

Led  by  the  sounds,  he  found  the  dogs  run- 
ning down  a  bison.  They  followed  it  until  it 
was  too  tired  to  fight,  and  then  pulled  it  down 
and  killed  it.  They  ate  all  the  meat  they 
wanted  and  went  away.  Then  Strongarm  cut 
meat  from  the  bison. 

On  his  way  home  he  saw  a  nest  of  wild  pup- 
pies in  a  hollow  tree. 

''Um,"  he  grunted,  ''the  Httle  wild  goat 
that  the  children  play  with  is  quiet  and  tama 
If  a  wild  puppy  grew  up  with  them,  would  it 
be  tame?    Would  it  help  me  to  hunt?" 

He  picked  up  a  puppy.  When  he  got  home, 
he  dropped  the  Uttle  ball  of  soft  black  wool 
between  the  two  boys  lying  on  a  bear  skin. 

26 


THE  TAMING  OF  THE  DOG 

Then  there  were  merry  eyes,  laughs,  and  soft 
calls: 

^^Here  Httle  pet!^'  and  ^'Oh,  the  little  sharp 
teeth!'' 

At  last  a  tired  Uttle  ball  fell  asleep  in  brown 
arms. 

The  puppy  grew  fast  and  was  full  of  play. 
He  followed  the  boys  everyivhere,  and  they 
called  him  ^'Wow  wow.'' 

One  day  they  were  pla3dng  by  the  high  rock, 
when  the  puppy  saw  something  in  the  woods 
and  ran  after  it. 

Pineknot  called  to  him,  '^Come  here,  Wow 
wow!" 

And  the  call  came  back  from  the  rock,  ''Wow 
wow!" 

''Oh,  hear  my  talking  shadow,  brother," 
said  Pineknot. 

"Yes,"  said  Thorn,  laughing,  "let  us  talk  a 
while  wdth  our  talking  shadows." 

So  they  lay  down  on  the  groimd  and  began 
to  call. 

"Ho,  there!"  called  Thorn. 
27 


THE  CAYE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE  "^ 

^'Ho,  there!''  came  back  from  the  rock. 
^^Come  here,  talking  shadow/' 
'^Shadow/'  was  the  answer. 


^^We  want  to  see  you/'  called  the  boys. 

^^See  you,"  said  the  echo. 

^^Ho,  ho,  ho!"  laughed  the  boys. 

^^Ho,  ho!"  laughed  the  talking  shadow. 

That  evening  Pineknot  came  running  to  the 
cave,  calUng,  ^^0  Thorn,  I  was  coming  along 
on  the  high  rock,  and  I  heard  Uttle  cries.     I 

28 


THE  TAMING  OF  THE  DOG 


crawled  through  the  bushes  and  looked  over 

and  saw  a  nest  full  of  young  eagles.    They 

were  skinny 

and  had  no 

feathers    on 

their  bodies. 

The      nest 

was  made  of 

sticks;    and 

oh,  it  was  big,  and 

there  was   a  lot  of 

feathers  in  it!^^ 

Pineknot  stopped    /"& 
for  breath. 

'^Go  on,  go  on,'' 
said  Thorn,  'Hell 
more/' 

'^As   I   looked,    a 
shadow    bird    went 
over  the  rock,"  said 
Pineknot;  ''and  then  down  dropped  the  mother 
eagle  with  a  snake  in  her  claws."  - 

"Oh,"  cried  Thorn,  "I  wish  I  had  seen  it." 
29 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

^^The  young  eagles  held  their  mouths  open/' 
Pineknot  went  on,  ^^and  their  mother  fed  them 
with  the  snake,  a  httle  bit  at  a  time.  When 
the  snake  was  all  gone,  the  mother  eagle  waved 
her  big  wings  and  flew  away.  Then  the  young 
ones'  heads  fell  down.     They  were  asleep.'' 

A  day  or  two  after  that.  Thorn  came  into  the 
cave  with  an  eagle's  feather  in  his  hand.  And 
there  were  long  red  cuts  and  scratches  on  his  body. 

His  father  looked  at  him  with  a  scowl. 

^^Men  bring  meat  from  the  hunt,  not  feathers," 
he  said  roughly. 

The  boy  looked  pitiful;  his  mother  felt 
sorry  for  him.  She  said  to  herself,  ^^He  has 
been  to  see  the  young  eagles.  The  mother 
eagle  saw  him.  He  fought  her  alone  with  his 
little  stone  ax.    He  will  be  a  great  hunter!" 

She  looked  at  him  proudly,  and  put  cold 
water  on  the  httle  torn  body. 

^^Gr-r-r,"  growled  Strongarm,  scowling. 
^' Would  you  make  a  baby  of  the  boy  ?  A 
fight  is  good  for  him.  He  will  learn  to  make 
his  way." 

30 


CHAPTER   IV 

HOW  STRONGARM   HUNTED   A    BEAR  AND   A   LION 

In  those  days  Strongarm  was  busily  digging 
a  big  hole  away  out  in  the  forest.  He  cut  the 
dirt  up  with  his  stone  ax,  and  threw  it  out  with 
a  clam  shell.  He  had  worked  now  for  days, 
and  at  last  the  hole  was  large  enough.  He 
laid  branches  over  it,  and  over  the  branches 
he  hung  the  leg  of  a  wild  goat. 

That  night  the  wild  things  of  the  woods 
came  out  to  hunt  for  food.  A  cave  bear  came 
by  and  smelled  the  meat.  He  went  to  get  it 
and  fell  through  the  branches  into  the  hole 
beneath. 

The  next  day  when  Strongarm  went  to  the 
hole,  he  foimd  the  great  cave  bear  in  it.  He 
killed  the  bear  and  carried  the  meat  home  to 
eat,  and  the  skin  to  sleep  on. 

31 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

Burr  took  the  bear  skin  from  him  and  laid 
it  out  on  the  ground.  She  drove  sticks  down 
through  the  edges,  all  the  while  pulling  the 


-     tUEREnC/MilC-. 


skin  tight.  Then  with  her  stone  scraper,  she 
scraped  off  all  the  meat  and  fat.  She  left  the 
skin  stretched  on  the  ground,  and  thought, 
^^It  will  dry  there,  and  another  day  I  will 
scrape  it  again.  Then  it  will  be  good  and 
soft  to  sleep  on.'' 

She  looked  up  as  a  man  came  running  toward 
the  cave. 

'^Oho,  Hickory!''    called  Strongarm,  'Vhat 
is  it?" 

32 


HOW  STRONGARM  HUNTED 

"A  lion  hunt!'^  shouted  Hickory,  and  shook 
his  spear, 

Strongarm's  bold  face  lighted  up. 

^^TeU  about  it/'  he  said. 

^^A  Hon  has  come  among  the  caves  by  the 
fiver.  He  kills  the  people  and  carries  off  the 
children.  The  women  dare  not  go  to  the  river 
for  water.  The  men  are  afraid  to  go  alone  to 
hunt.  So  they  want  help  to  kill  the  lion. 
They  want  all  the  strong  men  and  the  good 
hunters.     They  have  sent  for  you.'' 

Strongarm  quickly  took  his  club  and  spear 
and  went  off  with  old  Hickory.  The  men  went 
over  two  hills  and  across  a  stream,  and  came 
to  Hickory's  cave.  There  other  men  joined 
them.  All  the  men  had  clubs  and  spears  and 
stone  axes.  They  went  together  toward  the 
river  caves.     They  found  the  lion  and  killed  it. 

Strongarm  came  home  after  some  days, 
bringing  Uon's  meat.  Burr  cooked  it,  and 
Strongarm  said  to  the  boys,  ^^Eat,  it  will  make 
you  brave." 

After  a  while  Strongarm  sat  down  and  made 
33 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OP  STONE 

a  hole  in  a  lion^s  tooth.  Then  he  took  off  his 
necklace.  It  was  made  of  shells  and  bears' 
claws  and  a  tiger^s  tooth  and  a 
bit  of  amber.  He  put  the  lion^s 
tooth  on  his  necklace  and  held  it 
up  and  looked  at  it  and  said, 
^^Men  will  see  that  and  say, 
'There  is  a  brave  man.  There  is 
a  good  hunter.  He  has  helped 
to  kill  a  lion.' ^' 

The  boys  stood  by,  watching. 
Thorn  pointed  to  the  tiger's  tooth. 

'^How  long  and  sharp  it  is!  I  never  saw  a 
tiger.'' 

'^You  never  want  to  see  one  unless  you 
are  where  he  cannot  see  you,"  roared  Strong- 
arm. 

'^Tell  us  about  the  lion  hunt,  father,"  begged 
Pineknot. 

''We  watched  the  Hon  for  days,"  said  Strong- 
arm.  "We  found  that  he  sl^t  nearly  all  day 
in  the  thick  reeds  by  the  river.  At  simdown 
he  went  out  to  hunt.     He  hunted  all  night; 

34 


HOW  STRONGARM  HUNTED 


we  heard  him  roar  at  times.  In  the  early- 
light  he  went  back  to  his  bed  of  reeds  by  the 
river  and  went  to  sleep.    We  rolled  a  big  stone 

35 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

from  a  high  rock  and  killed  him  while  he  slept. 
Then  we  went  down  to  where  he  lay.  We 
saw  that  he  was  an  old  Hon;  he  could  not  himt 
animals  enough  to  eat,  and  that  is  why  he 
had  begun  to  kill  people.'^ 


36 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    OLD    AX   MAKER   VISITS   HIS   DAUGHTER 

As  they  were  talking,  a  long  call  came  from 
far  away.  They  listened.  The  call  came  again, 
and  Strongarm  put  his  hands  to  his  mouth 
and  answered. 

^^It  is  old  Fhnt,  the  ax  maker/'  he  said  to 
his  wife. 

^^Grandfather!''  cried  the  boys,  and  they  ran 
to  meet  him. 

Soon  they  came  back  with  an  old  man.  His 
hair  was  rough  and  gray,  but  his  eyes  were 
bright  under  his  bushy  eyebrows.  He  wore 
an  old  brown  bear  skin. 

^^Ho,  man!"    called  Strongarm,  ^'come  on!'^ 

^^Sit  and  rest,  father,"  Burr  said. 

The  old  man  sat  down  on  the  root  of  a  tree. 
Burr  brought  him  bison  meat  and  wild  honey 
and  a  horn  of  water. 

37 


The  cave  boy  op  the  age  of  stone 

"Eat,  you  are  tired  and  hungry/^ 

The  old  man  ate  all  he  wanted.  Then  he 
began  to  talk.  He  told  about  his  wife,  and  the 
work  at  the  stone  yard  and  the  gravel  bed, 
and  of  the  men  who  had  come  from  far  away 
to  buy  his  axes. 

The  boys  stood  by  and  listened. 

After  some  time  Burr  looked  at  the  bag  on 
the  old  man's  shoulder. 

"Have  you  a  new  ax  in  there  for  me?''  she 
asked  with  a  Httle  laugh. 

Smiles  came  about  the  old  man's  mouth, 
and  he  slowly  pulled  four  beautiful  chipped 
axes  from  his  bag.  One  ax  was  big  and  heavy. 
That  was  for  Strongarm.  He  handed  it  to  him. 
Another  ax  was  small  and  light.  That  was 
Burr's.  She  put  out  her  hand  for  it.  There 
were  two  httle  axes.  These  the  boys  snatched 
with  shouts  of  joy. 

The  axes  were  wide  at  the  sharp  end  and 
narrow  at  the  head,  and  you  could  see  where 
every  chip  had  come  off. 

Strongarm  turned  his  ax  over  and  looked  at 
38 


THE  OLD   AX  MAKER 

it.     He   rubbed   his   fingers   along   the   rough 
sharp  edge. 

^^That  is  a  good  ax/'  he  said, 
and  he  held  it  up  and  looked  it 
all  over  again. 

^'Grandfather/'  said  Thorn, 
pressing  close  to  the  old  man's 
side,  ''when  I  am  a  man,  I 
shall  be  an  ax  maker  like  you." 

"Begin  now,"  said  his  grandfather,  with  a 
gruff  laugh.  "It  takes  a  long  time  to  learn  to 
make  a  good  ax." 

"Can  anybody  learn?"  asked  Pineknot. 

"No,"  said  Fhnt.  "Some  men  can  chip 
stone,  and  others  cannot.  That  is  why 
some  men  make  axes,  and  other  men  use 
them." 

"Well,  I  will  try,"  said  Thorn.  "When  you 
go  back  to  the  stone  yard,  I  will  go  with 
you." 

Strongarm  turned  roimd  where  he  sat  and 
pulled  up  a  little  hickory  tree.  "We  will  put 
handles  on  these  axes,"  he  said. 

39 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 


He  hacked  off  a  piece  of  the  little  tree  and 
spht  it  half  way  down,  and  hacked  off  one 
spUt  piece.  The  other  spUt  piece 
he  bent  around  his  ax.  Then 
he  took  wet  string  made  of  skin. 
This  he  put  around  and  around 
the  ax  handle,  and  pulled  it 
tight. 

The  boys  stood  by  watching. 
^^The    wet    string    will    shrink 
and  draw  up  short,''  their  father 
told  them.      ^^Then  the  ax  will 
be  very  tight  on  the  handle.'' 

The  boys  now  tied  on  their  ax  handles  with 
their  father's  help.  And  FUnt  tied  on  Burr's. 
Then  all  set  to  work  with  sandstone  pebbles 
and  rubbed  them  smooth.  Strongarm's  was 
soon  done.  He  threw  his  old  ax  away,  stuck 
his  new  one  in  the  string  around  his  waist,  and 
went  off  to  hunt. 

Burr  took  her  digging  stick  from  beside  her 
door  and  hacked  a  point  on  it  with  her  new  ax. 
Then   she  burned  the  point  in  the  fire  until 

40 


THE  OLD  AX  MAKER 


it  was  hard.  She  took  a  basket  in  her  hand, 
and  her  baby  on  her  back,  and  went  out  of 
the  cave.  Old  FUnt  and  the  boys  rolled  a 
stone  up  to  the  door  to  keep  out  wolves  and 
foxes.  Then  they  all  went  into  the  woods,  and 
Burr  began  looking  for  things  to  eat. 

She  found  a  root  and  pushed  it  out  of  the 
ground  with  her  digging  stick  and  threw  it 
into  her  basket.  It  was  the  root  of  a  wild 
turnip.  She  foimd  other  roots.  They  were 
wild  carrots  and  celery.  In  the  open  places, 
tall  grasses  grew.  They 
were  the  wild  grains. 
These  she  bent  over  and 
beat  with  a  stick  until 
the  ripe  seeds  fell  into 
her  basket.  Under  the 
oak  trees  she  gathered 
acorns. 

Little  wild   pigs  were 
there  eating  the  acorns,  ^ 

and  the  boys  ran  one  down  and  brought  it, 
squeahng,  to  their  mother.     Burr  laughed  and 

41 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

said;  ^^You  are  little  men.    You  will  soon  hunt 
for  yourselves.'' 

It  began  to  rain,  and  they  all  sat  under  a 
tree  until  the  rain  had  passed. 


42 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   COMING   OF   FIRE 

When  Strongarm  came  back  from  the  hmit, 
he  found  the  cave  cold  and  dark  and  wet.  A 
stream  of  water  was  running  down  through  the 
smoke-hole.  It  had  put  out  the  fire.  The 
ashes,  too,  were  wet;  and  there  were  no  coals 
from  which  to  start  the  fire  again. 

He  looked  at  the  black  fire-place. 

^^Now  I  must  walk  all  the  way  to  old  Hick- 
ory's for  fire/'  he  grumbled;  ^^and  it  is  growing 
dark.'' 

Tired  and  hungry,  he  left  the  cave. 

He  had  not  gone  far  when  a  dead  branch 
fell  across  his  path.     He  jumped  back. 

^^The  people  who  Uve  in  the  trees  did  that — 
some  of  those  shadow  people,"  he  said  to  him- 
self.    ^^They  tried  to  kill  me.    The  man  who 

43 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

lives  in  the  wind  is  angry,  too.  Hear  him 
roar! 

^^I  do  not  hke  shadow  people/^  he  thought 
as  he  walked  on.  ^^They  live  in  trees  and  wind 
and  rivers  and  fire  and  stones  and  everything, 
but  you  cannot  see  them.  They  will  hurt  you 
if  you  make  them  angry.  I  am  afraid  of  them. 
I  wish  I  had  a  torch  to  scare  them  off.  All  the 
other  shadow  people  are  afraid  of  the  fire 
man.'^ 

Then  to  keep  up  his  heart  he  sang  in  a  loud 
gruff  voice: 

"O  why  did  the  water  put  out  the  fire? 
O  why  did  the  water  put  out  the  fire?'' 

Strongarm  gave  a  loud  call  as  he  came  up  to 
Hickory's  cave.  The  old  man  came  to  the 
door  and  asked  what  the  trouble  was. 

^^Trouble  enough/'  growled  Strongarm.  ^^My 
fire  is  out.     I  came  for  coals.'' 

Old  Hickory  gave  a  great  roaring  laugh.  His 
wife  laughed,  too,  as  she  pushed  the  children 
aside  and  raked   out   coals.      These   she  put 

44 


THE  COMING  OF  FIRE 

into  a  hollow  branch  that  Strongarm  handed 
her. 

^^They  will  keep  alive  in  there/^  he  said, 
'^even  if  it  rains.' ^ 

Then  with  a  good  pine  torch  and  his  branch 
full  of  coals,  he  hurried  home. 

When  Burr  came  back  to  the  cave,  she,  too, 
found  the  fire  out.  There  was  a  deer  on  the 
floor,  so  she  knew  that  Strongarm  had  come 
from  the  hunt. 

''The  man  has  gone  to  old  Hickory's  for 
fire,''  she  told  her  father. 

''Um,"  said  Flint,  ''he  might  have  rested 
his  legs.     I  can  get  fire  from  stones." 

"From  stones!"  cried  Burr,  her  face  white. 

The  old  man  quietly  pulled  two  stones  from 
his  bag.  One  was  flint,  the  other  was  quartz. 
He  took  dry  leaves  from  his  bag  and  rubbed 
them  very  fine  between  his  hands  and  laid  them 
on  a  rock.  Over  the  leaves  *he  held  the  two 
stones  and  began  to  strike  one  with  the  other. 

Burr  and  the  boys  watched  with  scared 
faces. 

45 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 


'^The  fire  man — ^wiU  he  not  be  angry?"  she 
asked. 

Flmt   said   nothing.    He   was   striking   the 

stones  together.  A 
spark  came !  then  an- 
other and  another! 
He  kept  on  striking 
very  fast  until  the 
sparks  came  Uke  a 
flame  and  caught  the 
dry  leaves.  He  put 
on  more  leaves  and 
little  sticks, 
and  soon  there 
was  a  good 
fire  blazing  on 
the  floor. 
''From  stones!" 
Burr  kept  thinking, 
as  she  shook  her  head  and  watched  it  out  of 
the  comer  of  her  eye. 

When  Strongarm  came  with  the  coals,  the 
cave  was  already  warm  and  Hght  and  full  of 

46 


THE  COMING  OF  FIRE 

the  smell  of  good  things  cooking.  He  looked 
at  the  fire  and  wondered  where  it  had  come 
from,  but  said  nothing. 

Near  the  fire  his  wife  had  a  basket  lined  with 
clay.  In  it  were  the  seeds  of  the  wild  grains 
and  acorns,  with  hot  coals.  She  shook  the 
basket  around  and  around  until  the  seeds  were 
roasted.  Then  from  the  ashes  she  pulled  the 
roots  she  had  put  there  to  roast. 

After  Strongarm  had  eaten,  he  lay  down  by 
the  fire.  Nodding  toward  it  he  said,  ^^ Where 
did  you  get  it  ?^^ 

Mint  then  told  him  that  he  had  brought  it 
out  of  stones.  Strongarm  sat  up  and  looked 
hard  at  Flint.  Then  Flint  had  to  strike  the 
stones  together  again,  to  let  Strongarm  see  the 
fire  come  out. 

^^  Beaver  Tail,  an  old  ax  maker,  showed  me 
how  to  do  it,'^  said  Fhnt.  ^^He  has  worked  in 
stone  all  his  life.  For  a  long  time  he  has 
known  that  fire  fives  in  stone.  He  has  seen 
sparks  fly  as  he  chipped  his  axes.  One  day  in 
making  a  spear  head,  he  struck  a  quartz  peb- 

47 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE' 

ble  with  his  flint  hammer  stone.  A  big  spark 
came!  He  struck  again  and  again,  and  the 
sparks  came  fast  and  caught  the  dry  grass  at 
his  feet!'' 

^^Um/'  grunted  Strongarm,  wondering. 

He  thought  for  a  long  time;  then  he  looked 
at  Flint  and  said,  ^^Fire  hves  in  wood,  too! 
My  ax  handles  grow  warm  as  I  rub  them.'' 

The  boys  listened  in  wonder  to  their  grand- 
father's strange  story  of  the  making  of  fire. 


After  a  time  Thorn  said,  ^'We  have  always 
had  fire  in  the  cave.  All  the  cave  folks  have 
it.  They  did  not  bring  it  from  stones.  Where 
did  they  get  it?" 

^^Once,  in  the  old  days,"  Strongarm  said,  and 
48 


THE  COMING  OF  FIRE 

turned  to  the  boy,  ^^a  man  saw  fire  come  out 
of  the  sky  and  begin  to  eat  up  the  woods !  He 
could  feel  the  fire  from  where  he  stood.  It 
made  him  warm,  and  he  Hked  it.  But  he  was 
afraid  to  take  any,  for  he  thought  the  fire  man 
might  be  angry.  But  at  last  he  did  take  some. 
He  kept  it,  and  grew  to  like  it  more  and  more. 
With  it  burning  beside  him,  the  night  was  not 
so  dark,  and  he  was  not  afraid;  for  the  hungry- 
wolf  and  tiger  turned  away — ^tfeeth  and  claws 
could  not  fight  fire! 

^^The  other  men  saw  that  it  was  good  to 
have  fire;  so,  in  time,  they  took  some  of  it. 
And  ever  since  then  every  man  has  tried  to 
keep  his  fire  burning/' 

^^It  is  better  for  us  cave  folks  since  fire  came,'' 
Burr  then  said,  nodding  to  the  boys.  ^^Why, 
before  it  came,  there  was  no  cooked  meat,  nor 
were  there  any  sweet  roasted  seeds  or  roots. 
But  the  folks  tore  their  meat  from  the  animal 
where  it  was  killed,  and  stood  by  and  ate  it  raw. 

^'Nor  was  there  a  home  before  fire  came. 
My  grandmother  told  me  that,  long  ago,  in 

49 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

the  old  days,  the  men  and  women  wandered 
from  place  to  place  with  their  httle  children* 
And  the  women  hunted  and  fished  and  fought 
beside  the  men.  And  at  night  the  people 
ciu*led  themselves  round  as  the  wild  dogs  do, 
and  slept  on  the  ground;  and  the  rain  wet  them, 

and   the   cold   winds 
made  them  shiver. 

^  ^  But  after  fire  came, 
all  this  was  changed. 
For  the  fire  would  go 
out  unless  there  was 
some  one  to  keep  it. 
So  a  man  told  his  wife 
that  she  might  stay 
and  keep  the  fixe,  and 
said  that  he  would 
hunt  for  both. 

'^The  woman  then 
took  a  place  that  she 
liked,  near  a  stream,  and  built  a  shelter  of 
branches  and  made  her  fire  there  and  kept  it. 
And  the  man  brought  meat  to  her,  and  she 

50 


THE  COMING  OF  FIRE 

cooked  it.  And  before  very  long  all  the  people 
were  living  in  that  way.  And  so  ever  since 
that  time,  the  man  has  been  the  hunter,  and 
the  woman  has  kept  the  j&re  and  brought 
water  from  the  stream  and  gathered  seeds  of 
the  ripe  grasses. 

^^And  always  since  then,  too,  the  family 
place  has  been  about  the  fire.  We  sit  beside 
it  and  warm  ourselves  and  work  and  talk  and 
rest;  and  that  is  home.^' 

^^True,  true,^^  grunted  old  FUnt;  and  Strong- 
arm  nodded  his  head. 


51 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   CAVE   TIGER 

One  morning  not  long  after  the  lion  hunt, 
Thorn  and  his  grandfather  started  off  to  the 
stone  yard.  They  soon  came  to  the  deep 
forest  where  they  could  not  see  far  ahead  of 
them,  because  the  beeches  and  oaks  and  chest- 
nuts grew  close  together,  and  imder  the  branches 
there  was  a  thick  tangle  of  low  bushes. 

Old  Fhnt  watched  carefully  as  he  led  the 
way  through  the  woods.  He  Kstened  to  every 
sound,  and  looked  often  behind  him.  Farther 
along,  the  ground  was  more  open;  and  from  a 
hill  they  looked  far  away  over  wide  level  land. 
Herds  of  horses  and  bison  were  grazing  there, 
and  packs  of  wolves  skulked  through  the  edge 
of  the  forest.  They  waited  to  spring  upon  the 
animals  that  should  stray  from  the  herds. 

52 


THE  CAVE  TIGER 

Passing  on,  old  Flint  came  upon  the  body 
of  a  rhinoceros  partly  eaten,  and  he  stopped 
and  looked  anxiously  around. 

'^This  is  the  work  of  a  tiger/'  he  said;  ^^and 
he  cannot  be  far  off,  for  the  meat  is  fresh/' 

Fhnt  peered  through  the  bushes;  but  the 
tiger  was  not  in  sight,  so  he  quickly  cut  meat 
from  the  rhinoceros  and  walked  on  slowly. 

^^The  tiger  may  be  somewhere  near,  sleeping. 
Keep  a  sharp  look-out,  boy;  he  is  yellow  with 
dark  stripes,  just  the  color  of  the  dry  grass, 
and  you  can  walk  almost  onto  him  before  you 
see  him.  No  animal  can  hide  better  than  he, 
and  none  can  walk  the  forest  paths  with  less 
noise  from  his  padded  feet.'' 

They  had  not  gone  much  farther  when  old 
Flint  stopped  and,  catching  his  breathy  stared 
into  the  shadows  of  a  tree.  Clutching  Thorn's 
shoulder,  he  pointed  to  the  spot  without  saying 
a  word.  There  on  a  limb,  asleep,  beautiful  in 
his  tawny  skin  and  easy  grace,  lay  the  great 
animal.  Thorn  looked  while  his  heart  beat 
fast.     Never  before  had  he  seen  anything  that 

53 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

SO  held  his  eye.  He  would  have  liked  to  stay 
and  watch  him — to  see  him  walk,  to  see  his 
great  claws  and  teeth,  and  his  wild  eyes.  But 
Flint  hurried  him  off,  and  without  a  sound 
they  left  the  place.  Not  till  he  had  put  miles 
between  himself  and  the  tiger  did  FUnt  shake 
off  a  feeling  of  terror,  and  speak  in  answer  to 
Thorn's  question: 

^^How  does  the  tiger  get  things  to  eat  ?'' 
'^He  steals  to  the  river  bank  where  the 
shade  is  deepest, '^  said  the  old  man,  recalling 
many  a  sight  of  the  crouching  beast.  ^^ There, 
on  some  over-hanging  limb  or  rock,  he  waits 
for  deer  or  horse  or  any  other  animal  to  come 
to  drink.  Then  from  his  hiding  place,  with  an 
angry  snarl,  he  springs  upon  the  back  of  his 
prey. 

^^Oh,  many  a  time  I  have  seen  him,'^  con- 
tinued old  FHnt,  thinking  of  past  years;  ^'for 
when  I  was  a  boy,  my  father's  cave  was  in  a 
high  cUff,  close  to  the  river.  A  little  way  be- 
low, there  was  a  place  where  the  animals  came 
to  drink.    And  often  I  have  felt  the  hair  rise 

54 


THE  CAVE  TIGER 

on  my  head  as  I  heard  the  cry  of  some  wounded 
animal,  and  saw  it  rush  away  with  a  yellow 
patch  chnging  to  its  neck. 

^^I  have  a  tiger's  jaw  which  I  found  once 
long  ago.    You  may  see  it  some  time.    Then 


you  will  know  why  the  tiger  can  kill  the  rhin- 
oceros, whose  thick  skin  no  other  animal's  teeth 
can  pierce.  In  the  tiger's  upper  jaw,  there  are 
two  teeth  that  are  long  and  sharp  and  thin. 
The  tiger  thrusts  these  into  the  neck  of  the 

55 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

rhinoceros,  and  he  sinks  to  the  ground,  and 
the  tiger  feeds  upon  him/^ 

^^You  say  the  tiger  springs  upon  the  back  of 
the  rhinoceros.  Well,  what  would  happen  if 
he  should  miss,  and  not  land  on  the  back?" 
.asked  Thorn. 

^^In  that  case  he  would  likely  have  short 
time  to  live,''  said  Flint.  ^^For  the  rhinoceros 
is  a  fiuious  beast  when  angry.  If  he  gets  his 
terrible  two-horned  snout  under  the  body  of 
his  enemy  and  gives  an  upward  fling  of  his 
powerful  neck,  the  end  is  near.  So  fierce  is 
the  rhinoceros  when  angry,  that  even  the 
mammoth  is  afraid  of  him  and  keeps  out  of  his 
way." 


56 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   MAKING   OF   STONE   WEAPONS 

Thorn  and  his  grandfather  walked  for  a  long 
time,  but  at  last  Flint  pointed  to  a  cave  in  the 
side  of  the  hill  and  said,  ^^We  rest  there." 

As  they  came  up.  Thorn  saw  his  grandmother 
sitting  in  the  sun  at  her  door.  Fhnt  said  to 
her,  ^^Here  is  Thorn,  your  grandson." 

^^The  Httle  man!"  she  said,  and  laid  her 
rough  hand  on  his  shoulder  gently. 

Then  she  quickly  cut  off  big  pieces  of  the 
rhinoceros  meat  and  ran  a  long  stick  through 
them,  and  placed  the  stick  over  the  burning 
fire.  While  the  meat  was  cooking,  Flint  was 
telling  about  Burr  and  her  little  family;  and 
of  Strongarm's  surprise  at  the  making  of  fire; 
and  of  the  lion  hunt;  and  of  the  sleeping  tiger 
they  had  seen  on  the  way  home. 

57 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

After  the  hungry  man  and  boy  had  eaten 
great  pieces  of  the  roasted  meat,  they  went  to 
the  stone  yard.  There  Thorn  heard  the  sound 
of  stone  hammers  and  saw  a  big  rocky  place 
in  the  hillside.  Three  men  sat  on  the  ground 
at  work.  Other  men  sat  about  talking.  Point- 
ing to  these,  FUnt  said,  ^^They  are  waiting  to 
buy  axes.^' 

There  were  piles  of  bowlders  on  the  ground, 
and  Uttle  piles  of  stone  chips  around  each  ax 
maker. 

FUnt  went  up  to  one  of  them  and  said,  ^^  Red- 
top,  my  boy  wants  to  make  axes.  Show  him 
how." 

Redtop  grinned  at  Thorn,  and  threw  him  a 
smooth  oval  bowlder. 

^^That  is  your  hammer  stone,"  he  said. 
'^Now  take  a  stone  about  the  size  you  want 
your  ax,  and  chip  it  this  way." 

Redtop  sat  on  the  ground.  He  held  a  flint 
bowlder  and  began  chipping  it  with  his  hammer 
stone.  Every  time  he  struck  the  bowlder,  a 
chip  flew  off.    He  kept  on  striking,  first  on  one 

58 


THE  MAKING  OF  STONE  WEAPONS 


^^^<?a^ 


side  and  then  on  the  other.  Thorn  watched 
with  shining  eyes.  Redtop  worked  fast  and 
easily,  and  after  some  time  held  up  a  beautiful 
ax.  It  was  broad  at  the  sharp  end  and  narrow 
at  the  head.    Thorn  saw  ^'^'r 

the  little  places  all  over 
it  where  the  chips  had 
come  off. 

He  looked  at  it  and 
laughed,  and  then  sat 
down  and  tried 
to  do  what  Red- 
top  had  done.  .^ 
He  struck  with 
his  hammer 
stone,  but  the  bowlder  did  not  chip.  He  worked 
on  and  on,  for  a  very,  very  long  time.  Still  the 
bowlder  would  not  chip,  and  his  arm  was  ready 
to  drop  off. 

At  last  Redtop  said,  '^Enough  for  to-day! 
You  will  do.^' 

Thorn  threw  down  his  stones  with  a  shout 
and  ran  to  his  grandfather. 

59 


.'^^'  ^«i/2^^ 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

Old  Flint  sat  at  work  under  a  big  beech 
tree.  At  his  side  there  was  a  little  pile  of 
bowlders,  and  about  him  there  were  chips  of 
flint. 

^^Well/'  he  said,  as  he  looked  up  at  the  boy, 
^'how  is  stone  work?'' 

^^It  is  not  so  easy  as  it  looks,  and  it  makes 
my  arm  hurt/'  said  the  boy  soberly;  ^^but  Red- 
top  said  that  I  would  do." 

^^Um/'  grunted  the  old  man  with  an  un- 
smiUng  face,  the  while  laughing  to  himself. 

He  worked  on.  After  a  time  he  said,  ^^The 
little  thing  you  shoot  with,  your  bow — did 
you  bring  it  ?" 

^^Oh,  yes!" 

^^Well,  I  will  make  a  Uttle  stone  head  for 
the  stick." 

^^Good,  grandfather!"  said  Thorn,  clapping 
his  hands. 

FUnt  took  a  pebble  from  the  pile  and  struck 
it  with  his  hammer  stone.  It  did  not  chip  in 
the  right  way,  so  he  threw  it  on  the  chip  pile. 
He   struck   another.     That   was   too   soft;   he 

60 


THE  MAKING  OF  STONE  WEAPONS 

threw  that  away.     He  tried  many  pebbles  be- 
fore he  found  a  good  one. 

'^This  will  do/'  he  said  at  last.  ^^The  chip 
leaves  a  slight  rounding  hollow  like  the  inside 
of  my  hand.'' 


Then  he  began  to  work.  He  held  the  peb- 
ble  in  his  left  hand  and  struck  it  a  sharp  blow 
with  another  pebble.  He  went  on  striking, 
round  and  round  the  pebble,  taking  off  a  flake 
or  a  big  chip  at  every  blow.    At  last  the  part 

61 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

of  the  pebble  left  was  too  small  to  work  with 
any  more.     It  was  the  core;  he  threw  it  away. 

^^We  chip  axes  by  striking/'  he  then  said  to 
the  young  ax  maker.  ^^That  way  of  chipping 
is  good  enough  for  axes;  they  are  heavy  and 
have,  besides,  the  weight  of  the  arm  to  carry 
the  blow.  With  spear  heads  it  is  different;  a 
spear  is  thrown,  and  the  head  should  be  sharp. 
I  can  get  a  smaller  chip,  and  so  a  sharper  edge, 
by  pressing  than  by  striking;  so  I  chip  my 
spear  heads  by  pressure.'' 

He  laid  a  little  piece  of  deer  skin  in  his  left 
hand.  On  this  he  laid  one  of  the  flakes  he  had 
just  broken  from  the  pebble,  and  held  it  fast 
with  his  fingers.  Then  he  took  a  piece  of  deer 
antler. 

'^This  antler,"  he  said,  ^4s  soft  enough  to 
spring  a  little  when  I  press  it  against  the  peb- 
ble.    Yet  it  is  hard  enough  to  bring  off  a  chip." 

He  began  pressing  with  the  antler  along  the 
edge  of  the  flake.  He  pressed  verj^  hard;  and 
every  time  he  pressed,  a  little  chip  flew  off. 
He  worked  very  fast. 

62 


THE  MAKING  OF  STONE  WEAPONS 

^^I  must  not  let  a  hump  come  in  the  middle/' 
he  said;  ^^for  then  I  should  have  a  turtle  back. 
Look  on  that  chip  pile;  you  will  see  many 
turtle  backs  that  I  have  thrown  away/^ 

The  old  man  was  making  the  point  now,  and 

he  began  to  sing: 

"I  give  you  the  eye  of  the  eagle, 
To  find  the  rabbit's  heart! 
I  give  you  the  eye  of  the  eagle, 
To  find  the  rabbit's  heart!'' 

As  Thorn  listened,  and  caught  the  meaning 
of  the  song,  his  eyes  grew  bright  and  he  held 
his  head  high. 

'^Grandfather  hopes  that  I  will  hunt  with 
the  little  bow  and  spear  !'^  he  said  to  himself. 

He  was  very  glad.  He  began  to  dance  and 
clap  his  hands  in  time  with  the  old  man's  song. 
Then  he  caught  the  words  and  began  to  sing 
with  his  grandfather: 

"I  give  you  the  eye  of  the  eagle, 
To  find  the  rabbit's  heart! 
I  give  you  the  eye  of  the  eagle. 
To  find  the  rabbit's  heart!" 

63 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  t AGE  OF  STONE 

Before  long  the  little  spear  head  was  done. 
It  was  thin  and  sharp  and  beautiful.  Thorn, 
tied  it  to  the  little  straight  stick,  and  he  had  an 
arrow  for  his  bow! 

FUnt  worked  on. 

'^We  make  all  of  our  axes  and  spear  heads 
and  knives  and  scrapers  of  flint/ ^  he  said  after 
a  while.  '^It  chips  more  easily  than  any  other 
stone.' ^ 

After  some  time  Fhnt  and  the  boy  left  the 
stone  yard. 


64 


CHAPTER  IX 

AT    THE    GRAVEL    PIT 

As  they  walked  along,  the  old  man  pointed 
to  a  place  in  the  hillside  and  said,  ^^That  is  the 
gravel  bed.  From  it  we  dig  all  the  stone  for 
our  axes  and  spear  heads/' 

Thorn  looked  and  saw  a  big  hollow  in  a 
gravel  hill.  The  hill  was  made  of  sand  and 
clay  and  pebbles  and  bowlders.  The  rain  had 
washed  some  of  the  sand  and  clay  away,  and 
the  stones  had  fallen  down  and  now  lay  in 
piles  on  the  ground. 

^^Men  come  from  far  away  for  our  stone/' 
the  old  man  went  on.  ^*It  is  good  stone  for 
axes.  They  bring  us  shells  and  amber  and  meat 
and  skins  for  our  stone.  Some  of  them  take 
the  stone  to  their  homes  and  make  their  own 
axes;  others  buy  our  axes.'' 

65 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

At  the  gravel  bed,  men  were  at  work.  One 
man  had  a  big  digging  sticko  He  put  it  imder 
a  rock  and  pushed  it  out  of  the  ground.  An- 
other man  had  the  shoulder  bone  of  a  bear. 
He  pushed  it  under  some  pebbles  and  lifted 
them  and  threw  them  upon  an  ox  skin  on  the 
groimd.  Then  he  gathered  up  the  corners  of 
the  skin,  took  it  on  his  back,  and  carried  it 
down  to  the  stone  yard. 

As  Thorn  watched  the  men  getting  out  stone 
for  their  axes  and  spear  heads,  he  said  to  his 
grandfather,  ^^Who  made  the  axes  for  the  cave 
men  before  you  made  them  ?^^ 

'^Oh,  ever  since  the  old  days,'^  said  Flint, 
'^  there  has  been  an  ax  maker.  Some  men  can 
chip  stone  well  and  easily.  Others  can  never 
learn  to  do  it  in  their  whole  Uves.  So  the  men 
who  can  chip  stone  do  it;  and  they  are  the  ax 
makers.  The  other  men  use  the  axes,  and 
they  are  the  hunters. 

^^My  grandfather  told  me,"  said  Flint,  as  he 
walked  slowly  down  the  hill,  'Hhat  in  the  old 
days  the  cave  men  did  not  have  stone  axes 

66 


AT  THE  GRAVEL  PIT 

and  spears.  They  hunted  with  sticks;  they 
threw  a  stick  Uke  your  mother's  digging  stick; 
and  they  struck  with  a  stick  Hke  your  father's 
hunting  club.    And  they  used  the  sharp  stones 


they  chipped  only  for  knives  and  scrapers.  But 
one  day,  a  man  thought  about  tying  a  sharp 
stone  to  a  stick!  There,  you  see,  was  the  first 
spear! 

67 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OP  THE  AGE  OP  STONE 

^'That  was  a  great  day  for  the  cave  men!'' 
Flint  went  on,  while  his  grim  face  Hghted  up. 
'^For  with  a  stone  weapon  they  could  hunt  the 
swift  wild  animals,  and  so  get  more  food/' 

Then  he  stamped  his  foot  and  said,  '^And 
they  could  kill  enemies  better!''  And  he 
clenched  his  fist,  while  his  face  grew  hard. 

The  next  day,  men  from  the  stone  yard 
went  out  to  make  a  fish  trap.  They  drove 
sticks  across  the  river  bed  where  the  water 
was  low.  Then  from  stick  to  stick  they  tied 
string  made  of  skin.  Rushes  grew  by  the 
river.  They  took  these  and  wove  them  in  and 
out  of  the  strings  until  the  trap  reached  clear 
across  the  river.  The  water  could  go  through 
the  rushes,  but  the  fish  could  not;  and  the  men 
speared  them  or  caught  them  with  their  hands. 


68 


CHAPTER  X 


A   SUMMER   CAMP 


Berries  were  ripe  now,  and  Flint  and  the 
other  cave  people  around  him  left  their  caves 
and  went  to  hve  near  the  berry  fields.    The 


men  went  out  to  himt  early  next  morning,  and 
the  women  and  children  went  to  pick  berries. 

69 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

There  were  plenty  of  wild  huckleberries  and 
little  yellow  plums.    The  women  and  children 


ate  and  ate  the  sweet  fruit,   and  then  filled 
bags  and  baskets  to  carry  home. 

As  they  left  the  berry  fields,  the  children 
pulled  down  the  wild  grape  vines  and  bit  into 

70 


A  SUMMER  CAMP 

the  little  grapes.  But  they  made  faces  and 
cried,  ''Oh,  how  sour!  After  awhile  they  will 
turn  purple;  then  they  will  be  sweeter.' ' 

And  there  were  trees  full  of  little  green 
apples.  The  children  tasted  some  of  them, 
but  threw  them  away.  ''Too  sour!'^  they 
cried. 

When  day  came  to  an  end,  the  men  gathered 
sticks  and  lighted  the  night  fires.  Then  they 
threw  themselves  on  skins,  and  all  talked  to- 
gether. They  called  to  each  other  from  fire  to 
fire,  and  told  long  stories  till  far  into  the 
night.  At  last,  in  the  middle  of  a  story,  they 
dropped  off  to  sleep. 

Half  asleep  on  his  reindeer  skin  beside  his 
grandfather.  Thorn  saw  the  old  yellow  moon 
go  down.  Around  him  he  heard  the  noises  of 
the  great  forest.  Katydids  and  locusts  and  tree 
toads  were  singing,  and  from  far  away  came 
the  long  howls  of  wolves.  From  a  branch 
overhead  a  great  snowy  owl  kept  calling  to  his 
mate.  That  was  the  last  the  boy  knew  till 
the  sim  lighted  up  the  tree  tops. 

71 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

The   next   evening  it   rained.    The   women 
quickly  bent  Uttle  trees  over  and  tied  their 


tops  together  and  threw  skins  over  them.  Then 
they  sat  on  the  gromid  under  the  shelters  and 
laughed  and  talked  and  watched  the  rain. 
Some  of  the  women  made  baskets. 

One  woman  had  an  elm  branch.  She  broke 
off  the  rough  outside  bark  to  get  the  soft  inside 
bark.    This  she  pulled  off  in  strips  and  twisted 

72 


A  SUMMER  CAMP 

together  into  long  strings.  Then  she  broke 
little  branches  from  the  tree  bending  over  her, 
and  tied  them  together  at  one  end.  With  two 
pieces  of  string,  she  wove  under  and  over  a 
stick  and  crossed  the  strings.     In  this  way  she 


wove  around  and  around  the  basket  to  the  top, 
and  tied  a  stick  for  a  handle. 

"I  will  place  leaves  in  it,  and  then  it  will  hold 
berries,'^  she  said. 

One  woman  was  making  a  bag  of  a  bit  of 
skin.    She  made  holes  near  the  edge  of  the  skin 

73 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 


and  put  a  string  through  them  and  pulled  them 
together.     Another  woman  made  a  basket  of 

birch  bark  in  the  same 
way. 

One  day  when  the  ber- 
ries were  about 
gone,  Thorn  saw 
a  great  herd  of 
reindeer  going  by. 
^^Oh,  look  at  all 
the  reindeer, 
grandfather !''  he  cried.  ^^Where  are  they 
going?'' 

^^When  smnmer  comes,''  said  FHnt,  'Hhey 
go  to  a  colder  country;  and  when  summer  ends, 
they  come  back  to  the  cave  country." 

There  were  many  reindeer  in  the  herd,  and 
their  antlers  looked  like  a  forest  of  trees  without 
leaves.  A  big  bear  with  hungry  eyes  was 
following  the  herd. 

That  evening  a  young  hunter  made  a  picture 
of  a  beautiful  reindeer  with  his  head  among 
the  grasses.    Another  hunter  made  a  picture 

74 


A  SUMMER  CAMP 

of  two  deer  that  he  had  killed,  and  two  live 
deer.  Still  another  man  made  a  handle  for  a 
knife.  He  carved  it  from  bone.  It  was  like  a 
deer  springing.  The  antlers  were  laid  back  on 
the  neck,  and  the  front  legs  were  turned  under 
the  body;  the  hind  legs  lay  along  the  handle. 

^^Good!'^  said  the  other  men  as  they  looked 
at  it. 


75 


CHAPTER  XI 


THORN  MEETS  THE   CHILDREN  OF  THE  SHELL 
MOUNDS 

Every  day  Thorn  worked  for  a  little  while 
at  the  chipping  of  stone  axes,  but  he  had 
plenty  of  time  for  play.  One  morning  he  ran 
to  the  river  and  jumped  on  his  raft. 

'^Ha!'^  he  said,  ^^my  other  self  jumped  the 
stream  with  me.  And  now  it  leans  over  a 
shadow  raft  and  reaches  for  a  shadow  pole.'^ 

He  looked  about  him.  On  the  grass  lay  the 
long  shadows  of  the  trees.  In  the  clear  water 
were  the  pictured  banks. 

^^  Everything  has  another  self/^  he  thought. 

As  he  grew  busy  with  his  bow,  he  heard  loud 
talking,  and  looked  up  and  saw  strange  men 
^nd  children  coming  along  the  other  bank. 

''The  men  are  coming  to  buy  axes,''  he 
76 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  SHELL  MOUNDS 

thought.  ^^The  children  have  come  along  with 
them;^ 

The  men  jumped  into  the  river  and  swam 
across  and  went  to  the  stone  yard.  But  the 
children  came  swimming  up  around  the  raft 
like  wild  ducks.  Some  of  them  had  long  hair 
that  floated  about  on  the  water. 

''Are  you  Thorn,  the  cave  boy?'^  one  of 
them  asked  him. 

''Yes,  who  are  you?^^ 

"I  am  Clam,  a  shell  moimd  boy/' 

Then  the  children  came  up  aroimd  the  raft 
and  shook  it  so  that  Thorn  almost  fell  off. 

"Stop,  or  I  will  shoot  you!''  he  cried,  laugh- 
ing. 

"Oh,  he  will  shoot  us!''  cried  the  children, 
and  they  hid  behind  one  another,  playing  they 
were  afraid. 

"Is  that  your  bow  ?"  Clam  now  asked.  "We 
heard  about  it.     Shoot  for  us.'^ 

"Yes,"  said  Thorn. 

He  began  to  paddle  to  the  bank,  but  the 
children  crowded  around  the  raft  and  quickly 

77 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

pushed  it  to  shore.  Thorn  jumped  off  and  be- 
gan to  shoot  at  the  trees.  The  children  went 
along  with  him  and  watched  with  big  eyes. 
One  of  the  arrows  struck  a  tree  and  stuck  in 
the  bark.  The  children  laughed  and  ran  and 
pulled  it  out. 

^^Do  that  again!''  they  cried. 

Thorn  did  it  again  to  shouts  and  the  clap- 
ping of  hands.  Then  a  boy  named  Periwinkle 
threw  up  a  piece  of  bark  and  cried,  ^^Hit  that!'' 

Thorn  tried  over  and  over  again,  but  he 
could  not.  At  last  he  grew  tired  of  shooting. 
Then  the  children  crowded  round  him,  and 
Clam  said,  ^^Come  home  with  us.  Show  your 
bow  to  the  other  children." 

^^How  can  I  get  there?"  Thorn  asked. 

''Swim  across  the  river,  then  walk." 

''I  cannot  swim." 

The  children  laughed  and  thought  that  very 
strange,  but  Periwinkle  said,  ''Well,  we  will 
push  you  on  the  raft." 

"Yes,  yes!"  cried  the  other  children. 

So  Thorn  told  his  grandfather  that  he  was 
78 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  SHELL  MOUNDS 

going  home  with  the  shell  mound  people.  And 
when  the  men  had  bought  their  axes,  the 
children  all  ran  down  to  the  river  together. 


Some  of  the  boys  quickly  tied  a  wild  grape 
vine  to  the  raft.  Then  they  cried,  ^^Here  we 
go!''  and  dived  into  the  river  and  swam  away, 

79 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

pulling  the  raft.  Laughing  and  shouting  and 
splashing,  the  others  jumped  in  and  followed. 
They  came  up  alongside  the  raft  and  pushed  it 
with  one  hand  and  swam  with  the  other. 

Before  long,  all  the  children  on  one  side  of 
the  raft  shouted  and  waved  their  arms  and 
dived.  They  came  up  on  the  other  side  of  the 
raft.  Then  the  rest  of  the  children  dived  and 
came  up  far  ahead  of  the  raft.  Thorn  looked 
on  in  wonder.  As  they  came  near  the  other 
bank,  the  girls  pulled  up  the  yellow  water  Hlies 
and  tied  them  in  their  wet  hair. 

The  children  walked  along  beside  the  river 
for  a  while.  Hippopotamuses  lay  floating  in 
the  water,  asleep  in  the  sun.  The  children 
gave  a  great  shout  and  woke  up  the  river  horses, 
as  they  called  them.  The  animals  opened  their 
big  mouths — and  the  snorts,  grunts,  yawns! 
Thorn  had  never  heard  anything  like  it. 

''What  big  teeth  they  have,'^  he  said. 

''Yes,  and  just  to  eat  grass,''  said  another 
boy. 

And  soon  some  of  the  great  rough  things 

80 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  SHELL  MOUNDS 


dived  and  came  up  with  their  mouths  full  of 
reeds. 

A  little  farther  along,  Thorn  saw  beavers  at 
work  on  the  bank.  They  were  carrying  birch 
branches  down  to 
their  homes  beneath 
the  little  round 
mounds.  And  once 
in  a  while  a  water  i 
rat  or  snake  swam 
across  the  river. 
Farther  on,  a  flock 
of  white  swans 
floated.  Their  wings 
were  raised  a  httle,  and  their  shadows  floated 
with  them. 

The  children  stopped  to  watch  them. 

^Tretty!"  they  said.  ^^  Swans  and  shadow 
swans!" 

So  laughing  and  playing  and  seeing  strange 
and  beautiful  things,  Thorn  walked  a  long 
way  with  the  children.  At  last,  far  off,  he  saw 
a  long  purple  line. 

81 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OP  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

^^That  is  the  sea/'  Periwinkle  told  him. 

When  they  came  to  it,  there  was  a  big  blue 
water  with  no  shore  on  the  other  side.  It 
was  beautiful,  and  Thorn  shouted  as  he  saw 
the  foam-capped  waves  roll  in  and  break  on 
the  white  sand. 

Pointing  to  a  place  along  the  shore,  the 
children  said,  ^^ There  is  our  home.'' 


82 


CHAPTER   XII 

AT   THE   HOME   OF  THE   SHELL  MOUND   PEOPLE 

Dogs  barked  and  ran  up  and  down  the  shore 
among  the  people.  The  children  ran  along  to 
their  home.  They  were  not  afraid  of  the  dogs, 
but  petted  them.  And  the  dogs  jumped  about 
the  children  and  played  with  them  and  were 
glad  to  see  them. 

The  people  of  the  shell  mounds  did  not  look 
just  like  the  cave  people.  They  were  shorter 
and  had  rounder  heads.  But  their  eyebrows 
hung  over  their  eyes,  as  the  cave  people's  did. 
And  they  dressed  in  skins. 

Their  houses  were  made  of  branches  of  trees 
and  stones  and  dirt.  They  were  set  high  up  on 
shore  where  the  waves  could  not  reach  them. 

Thorn  walked  about  with  the  children  and 
saw  a  great  pile  of  shells.     It  lay  far  along 

83 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OP  STONE 

the  shore,  and  was  higher  than  a  man,  and 
very  wide. 

'^What  are  you  going  to  do  with  all  these 
shells?'^  he  asked  Periwinkle. 

^^Do  with  them?'^  laughed  Periwinkle. 
*'  Why,  nothing.    We  threw  them  away.    They 


show  what  good  things  we  have  had  to  eat,  do 
they  not,  Foam?^^ 

Foam  was  a  girl  with  white  teeth. 

^^Yes,''  said  Foam,  laughing.  ^^They  are 
shells  of  oysters  and  clams  and  periwinkles 
that  we  have  eaten.'' 

^'Um-m!  what  lots  of  them  you  have  eaten!'' 
said  Thorn,  looking  over  the  big  pile. 

^^Yes,"  said  Periwinkle,  with  a  laugh,  ^^we 
live  on  them.'' 

^^But  you  see,''  Foam  went  on,  ^'our  people 
84 


HOME  OF  THE  SHELL  MOUND  PEOPLE 

have  lived  here  for  a  long  time — ^longer  than 
my  grandfather  can  remember.  And  the  shell 
mounds  have  been  growing  all  that  time.  There 
are  many  other  shell  heaps  all  along  this  shore, 
where  more  of  our  people  live.'' 

Thorn  looked  down  to  the  water's  edge  and 
saw  men  pulhng  hollow  logs  down  to  the  shore. 

^'They  are  going  fishing  in  the  dug-outs/' 
said  Periwinkle.  ^^Come  on,  we  will  go  with 
them." 

The  boys  ran  down  to  the  shore  and  jumped 
into  a  boat  that  the  men  had  pushed  out  into 


.^ 


-^J 


•^^^• 


^-<i=. 


the  water.    Then   the  men   also   jumped  in, 
and  paddled  out  with  sticks. 

"Why  do  you  call  these  dug-outs?"  asked 
85 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

Thorn,  rubbing  his  hand  along  the  side  of  the 
boat. 

'^Because  they  are  dug-outs/^  laughed  Peri- 
winkle.    ^^You  will  see  them  made  some  day/^ 

'^Well,  why  do  they  not  turn  over  ?^^  Thorn 
asked  next. 

^^ Because  they  are  flat  on  the  bottom.^' 

The  dug-outs  kept  together  and  went  a 
little  way  out  to  sea.  One  man  had  a  bone 
spear.  He  saw  a  fish  lying  on  the  bottom  and 
speared  it. 

'^Oh,  it  is  a  flounder/^  said  Periwinkle.  ^^See, 
it  is  white  on  one  side.  It  hes  on  that  side. 
It  is  gray  on  the  top  side,  and  both  the  eyes 
are  there.^' 

Other  men  had  long  strings  and  bone  hooks. 
They  caught  cod  and  herring. 

When  the  boats  were  well  filled  with  fish, 
the  men  began  to  paddle  home.  But  before 
they  reached  the  shore,  the  sky  turned  gray, 
and  the  sea  grew  rough,  for  the  wind  blew 
hard. 

'^This  is  nothing,^'  said  Periwinkle,  laughing, 
86 


HOME  OF  THE  SHELL  MOUND  PEOPLE 

as  he  saw  the  whites  of  Thorn's  eyes.  ''You 
should  see  it  sometimes.  The  waves  are  as 
high  as  a  hill!  Then  we  do  not  go  fishing,  and 
we  live  on  foxes  or  rabbits  or  bears  or  ducks, 
or  anjrthing  that  we  can  kill.  When  we  get 
nothing  by  hunting,  we  kill  the  dogs.'' 

''Do  the  big  waves  ever  turn  the  dug-outs 
over?"  Thorn  asked,  with  white  lips. 

"Yes,  but  we  all  swim." 

When  the  boats  reached  shore,  the  women 
stood  waiting.    They  were  glad  when  they  saw 


the  fish,   and  quickly  took  them  out.    Then 
they  began  to  cook  them. 

87 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

One  woman  laid  her  fish  on  hot  coals  to  cook. 
Another  put  big  leaves  around  hers  and  buried 
them  in  the  ashes.  One  cooked  hers  in  still 
another  way.  She  went  to  a  hole  in  the  ground 
and  Uned  it  with  a  skin.  She  poured  water 
into  the  hole  and  then  put  in  hot  stones  until 
the  water  grew  hot.  Then  she  put  in  her 
fiish. 

When  the  fish  were  cooked,  the  women  cut 
big  pieces  and  gave  them  to  their  famiUes. 


The  people  took  the  fish  in  their  hands  and  sat 
down  on  the  sand  and  ate. 

88 


HOME  OF  THE  SHELL  MOUND  PEOPLE 

''Maybe  you  would  like  salt  on  your  fish," 
said  Foam  to  Thorn. 

She  took  a  little  in  her  fingers  and  put  it  on 
his  fish. 

''That  makes  it  taste  better.  Where  do  you 
get  salt?'' 

"We  bum  sea-weed  and  get  it.'' 

When  all  the  fish  had  been  eaten,  Periwinkle 
called,  "They  are  going  to  hack  down  a  tree. 
Come  on,  if  you  want  to  see  it." 

As  the  boys  ran  through  the  woods,  Thom 
saw  nothing  but  fir  trees. 

"Have  you  no  trees  but  firs  ?"  he  asked. 

"No,  only  firs — ^firs,  Kttle  and  big,  as  far  as 
you  can  see." 

The  boys  followed  the  soimds  that  rang 
through  the  woods.  Soon  they  saw  men  busy 
about  a  tree.  One  man  was  hacking  a  ring 
around  it  near  the  ground.  When  that  was 
done,  he  hacked  another  ring  above  the  first. 
His  stone  ax  did  not  cut  deep.  And  the  wood 
between  the  two  rings  stayed  there;  it  did  not 
fly  off  in  chips.     So  both  men  began  to  beat 

89 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

the  wood  between  the  rings  with  the  flat  side 
of  their  axes.  Around  and  around  the  tree 
they  went,  and  beat  the  chips  to  get  them 


loose.  Then,  with  a  piece  of  antler,  they 
worked  under  the  chips  luitil  they  came  off. 
After  that  they  hacked  again  in  the  rings,  and 

90 


HOME  OF  THE  SHELL  MOUND  PEOPLE 

again  beat  the  wood  between,  and  worked  off 
the  chips. 

^^Oh,  come  and  play  in  the  sand,"  at  last  cried 
Periwinkle.  ^^They  will  be  days  hacking  down 
that  tree." 

The  boys  ran  back  to  the  shore  and  lay  down 
in  the  warm  sand.  They  saw  the  purple  sea, 
and  the  sea  birds  flying,  and  heard  the  waves 
breaking  on  the  beach. 


91 


(&\ 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THORN   LEARNS  TO   SWIM 


After  a  little  the  boys 
jumped  up  and  ran 
into  the  water  to  play 
with  the  other  chil- 
dren. 
A  big  green  wave  came  rolling 
in,  and  the  children  quickly  took 
hold  of  hands.  They  jumped  up 
as  the  wave  broke  over  them.  It 
knocked  some  of  them  down  and  stood  Clam 
on  his  head.  Somebody  caught  his  feet,  and 
the  others  all  laughed.  He  came  up  angry  and 
choking,  when  another  wave  caught  him  and 
rolled  him  over  again.  After  that  the  boys 
came  crowding  aroimd  Thorn,  waving  their 
arms. 

92 


THOEJSr  LEARNS  TO  SWIM 

''You  must  learn  to  swim/^  they  cried.  ''It 
is  easy.  Make  your  arms  go  this  way  and  your 
feet  this  way^';  and  they  showed  him  how. 

Thorn  tried  it  and  went  straight  to  the  bot- 
tom.    The  boys  shouted. 

"Here  is  a  log/^  they  said.  "Put  your  arms 
over  that.     It  will  keep  you  up  till  you  learn.'^ 


Thorn  kept  on  trying,  and  in  a  few  days  be 
could  swim  a  little. 

"You  do  very  well/'  said  Foam. 

The  next  day,  when  the  tide  was  out,  the 
boys  waded  in  and  picked  up  periwinkles  and 

93 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

oysters  and  clams,  and  threw  them  up  on  the 
beach. 

When  Periwinkle  began  to  open  his  oysters, 
he  took  a  brown  bowl  to  put  them  in.  Once, 
in  breaking  a  shell,  his  stone  knife  struck  the 
bowl  and  broke  it. 

''Too  bad,''  he  said.  ''Mother  Uked  that 
bowl.  She  made  it  herseK,  of  clay,  and  dried 
it  by  the  fire.'' 

"Of  clay!"  Thorn 
said,  looking  at  the 
pieces  won- 
deringly.     "  I 
never  saw  a  bowl 
Uke  that." 

Periwinkle  threw 
the  oyster  shells 
and  pieces  of  broken  bowl  up  on  the  shell  heap. 
"We  throw  all  such  things  in  a  heap,"  he  said. 
"Then  they  are  out  of  the  way  and  will  not  cut 
our  feet." 

After  working  for  days  and  days,  the  men 
got   the   tree  for  the   dug-out  hacked   down. 

94 


THORlSr  LEARNS  TO  SWIM 

Then  they  hacked  off  a  log  and  dragged  it 
down  to  the  shore.  Here  they  began  to  make 
the  dug-out. 

They  built  a  fire  all  along  the  top  of  the  log. 
It  burned  down  slowly.  The  men  watched  the 
fire  and  kept  putting  on  more  sticks.  If  it 
burned  too  near  the  edge,  they  put  on  water 
or  clay  or  wet  moss  to  stop  it. 

^^You  see,  they  burn  out  only  the  middle  of 
the  log  and  leave  good  strong  thick  sides  to 
the  boat/^  said  Periwinkle. 

After  the  fire  had  burned  down  into  the  log 
a  way,  the  men  raked  off  the  hot  coals.  The 
wood  beneath  was  burned  to  charcoal.  The 
men  scraped  it  off  with  stone  scrapers.  Then 
they  put  on  more  fire  and  again  burned 
the  log. 

^^The  fire  will  burn  down  faster,  now  that  the 
charcoal  is  scraped  off,"  said  Periwinkle. 

The  men  worked  for  a  long  time,  burning 
and  scraping  away,  burning  and  scraping,  until 
they  had  dug  a  little  hollow  all  along  the  mid- 
dle of  the  log. 

95 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

Then  one  man  said,  ^'We  have  worked 
enough/^ 

And  the  men  dropped  their  scrapers  and  went 
off. 

The  next  day  Thorn  walked  along  the  beaeh 
and  picked  up  pretty  shells. 

'^ These  are  for  the  folks  at  home/'  he  said 
to  Periwinkle.  ^^They  will  put  them  on  the 
strings  around  their  necks.'' 

^'Here  is  my  bow/'  he  went  on,  handing  it 
to  Periwinkle.  ^'You  may  keep  it.  I  can 
make  another.  I  am  going  back  to  my  grand- 
father's now." 

Periwinkle  and  Clam  and  some  of  the  men 
went  part  way  with  Thorn.  They  walked 
for  a  long  time  through  fir  forests  and  then 
came  to  the  forests  of  oak  and  beech  and  ash 
and  chestnut.  Here  Thorn  left  his  friends, 
and  waved  his  arm  to  them  as  he  ran  on  to  his 
grandfather's.  The  shell  people  went  back  to 
their  home  by  the  sea. 


96 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE   FEAST   OF   MAMMOTH's   MEAT 

One  morning  after  Thorn  had  come  back  to 
his  grandfather's  cave,  he  woke  up  with  tears 
on  his  face. 

^^Last  night  when  I  was  asleep/'  he  said  to 
himself,  ^^my  shadow  self  went  away  to  the 
home  cave.  And  there  it  saw  my  mother  and 
Pineknot  and  the  baby  sitting  about  the  fire, 
just  as  they  used  to  sit.  And  they  were  talking 
about  me,  sa3dng  that  they  wanted  to  see  me. 
And  I  want  to  go  home  to  see  them.'' 

The  homesick  boy  went  into  the  woods  for 
comfort;  he  loved  to  watch  the  wild  things 
going  about.  Not  far  off,  he  saw  a  herd  of 
mammoths  feeding.  He  never  tired  of  looking 
at  the  big  hairy  elephants  with  their  turned- 
up  tusks  and  long  snaky  trunks.    They  were 

97 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

reaching  up  for  the  tender  leaves  of  the  birch, 
or  needles  of  the  hemlock,  and  would  carry  the 
green  stuff  to  their  mouths  with  their  trimks. 
Young  ones  with  shaggy  coats  of  woolly  hair, 
were  playing  about  their  mothers  or  eating 
grass.  Sometimes  one  of  the  big  mothers 
would  give  her  young  one  a  bunch  of  leaves. 
Then  she  would  rub  it  gently  with  her  trunk, 
petting  it. 

The  herd  ate  on  toward  the  edge  of  the  woods. 
Then,  following  a  big  mammoth,  it  left  the  for- 
est and  went  toward  a  swamp. 

Thorn  slipped  down  from  his  tree  and  ran 
to  another  one  on  the  edge  of  the  woods,  where 
he  could  get  a  better  view.  From  here  he  saw 
the  mammoths  out  in  the  swamp.  Some  were 
drinking,  others  were  wallowing,  and  still  oth- 
ers were  throwing  water  over  themselves  with 
their  trunks.  After  getting  a  thick  coat  of 
mud  on  their  shaggy  skins,  the  herd  began  to 
leave  the  swamp. 

But  one  big  mammoth  did  not  leave  with 
the  others.    He  could  not;  he  had  gone  far 

98 


THE  FEAST  OF  MAMMOTH'S  MEAT 

out  in  the  swamp.    His  feet  sank  in  the  soft 
mud;  and  when  he  tried  to  pull  them  out,  he 


foimd  them  stuck  fast.  Then  he  began  to 
trumpet.  At  this  the  whole  herd  grew  uneasy 
and  turned  back  and  walked  round  him,  waving 

S9 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

their  trunks  and  trumpeting  and  throwing  mud 
and  water. 

Thorn  well  knew  that  a  mammoth  stuck  in 
the  mud  meant  meat  for  the  cave  folks  for 
many  a  day.  So  he  Hghtly  sUd  down  the  tree 
and  ran  to  the  stone  yard  with  the  news.  The 
men  there  ran  to  the  nearest  caves  with  the 
word,  and  it  was  sent  on  from  cave  to  cave. 

The  herd  stayed  with  the  mired  mammoth 
all  day.  But  when  night  fell,  the  other  mam- 
moths slowly  left  him,  often  turning  back  to 
touch  him  with  their  trunks  and  to  trumpet. 


A  crowd  of  cave  men  had  already  gathered, 
and  were  waiting  in  the  woods  until  the  herd 
should   leave.    They  now  made   fires   aroimd 

100 


THE  FEAST  OF  MAMMOTH'S  MEAT 

the  mammoth  to  keep  off  the  wolves  and  hyenas 
that  had  abeady  begun  to  skulk  about.  And 
then  they  killed  the  mammoth  with  their 
spears. 

As  the  Sim  rose  next  morning,  Thorn  and  his 
grandfather  and  grandmother  went  over  to  the 
swamp.  The  cave  people  soon  began  to  come 
in  from  all  the  caves  round  about  in  the  hill 
country.  They  came  in  little  crowds,  laughing 
and  talking  very  loud.  They  were  happy,  for 
there  was  plenty  to  eat  and  somebody  to  eat 
with.  As  they  came  up,  they  stood  for  a  long 
time  looking  at  the  manmaoth  and  talking 
about  how  big  he  was.  And  some  told  of 
other  mammoths  that  had  got  stuck  in  swamps 
and  of  how  they  had  found  them. 

Thorn  sat  down  on  the  side  of  a  hill  and 
watched  the  people  coming.  The  arms  and 
faces  of  the  men  and  women  were  painted  in 
stripes  of  red  or  yellow.  All  the  cave  men  that 
Thorn  knew  were  there,  and  many  that  he  did 
not  know.    Before  long  his  own  family  came. 

Soon  after  that  the  men  began  to  cut  great 
101 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

pieces  of  meat  from  the  mammoth.  They 
gave  them  to  the  women  to  roast.  The  women 
made  fires  and  put  stones  in  them  to  get  hot. 
They  dug  holes  in  the  ground  and  rolled  into 
them  some  of  the  hot  stones.  Next  they 
threw  meat  upon  the  hot  stones  and  rolled 
more  hot  stones  upon  it.  Then  they  covered 
the  holes  with  dirt  and  built  fires  upon  them. 
While  the  meat  was  roasting,  the  women  went 
over  to  watch  the  men  playing. 

The  men  were  talking  together  in  a  crowd. 
A  man  named  Crowfoot  stood  out  and  shouted, 
^^I  can  climb  a  tree  faster  than  any  man  here!'^ 

^^No,  no!"  shouted  five  or  six  men  who 
jumped  up  and  ran  to  trees. 

"Go!''  called  a  man. 

They  all  jumped  as  high  as  they  could  and 
then  climbed  very  fast,  hand  over  hand,  feet 
and  legs  pushing  as  if  a  wounded  bear  were 
after  them.     Crowfoot  reached  the  top  first. 

Everybody  shouted,  "Crowfoot!    Crowfoot!'' 

Then  a  man  with  big  arms  stood  out  and 
said,  "I  am  best  man  in  throwing  the  spear!'' 

102 


THE  FEAST  OF  MAMMOTH'S  MEAT 

A  dozen  men  snatched  spears  and  ran  out. 
Everybody  stood  where  he  could  see.  The 
men  with  spears  stood  far  back  from  a  tree. 
One  threw.  His  spear  struck  the  tree,  but  fell 
Everybody   laughed.    The    next    man    threw. 


I-ir2SS3>  • 


His  spear  missed  the  tree. 
Everybody  yelled  and  roared. 
Strongarm  threw.  His  spear 
struck  and  stood  in  the  tree 
shaking. 

^^Strongarm!''  shouted  the  people. 

Other  men  threw,  whose  spears  stood  in  the 
tree.  Then  those  men  ran  and  pulled  out 
their  spears  and  stood  farther  back  and  threw 
again.  Each  man  threw  many  times.  Strong- 
arm's  spear  stood  oftenest  in  the  tree  from  the 
longest  distance. 

^'Strongarm's  eye  is  best!''  the  others  shouted. 
^^His  arm  is  strongest!" 

103 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

After  that  a  young  man  cried,  ^^I  have  flying 
feet!    Who  will  run  with  me?'' 

^^I  wiU!'' 

^^I  will!'' 

And  yoimg  men  ran  out  and  stood  beside 
him,  and  all  the  people  watched. 

The  race  started.  The  young  men  ran  Hghtly, 
Hke  deer.  They  skimmed  the  ground  like  swal- 
lows. Some  of  them  ran  all  the  way  side  by 
side,  and  came  in  together  sweating  and  panting. 

The  people  clapped  their  hands  and  said 
laughing,  ^^They  are  good  cave  men;  they  can 
both  fight  and  nm  away." 

By  this  time  the  meat  was  roasted.  The 
women  pulled  it  from  the  holes  with  long  sticks, 
and  the  people  took  great  pieces  in  their  hands 
and  ate  them,  and  then  took  more. 

'^Mammoth  meat  is  good  and  juicy,"  one  man 
said. 

•^Yes,"  said  another,  ''but  not  so  tender  as 
horse  or  reindeer  meat." 

After  eating  all  they  wanted,  Thorn  and  Pine- 
knot  and  old  Hickory's  children  and  some  of 

104 


THE  FEAST  OF  MAMMOTH'S  MEAT 

the  other  children  went  off  to  play.  They 
played  being  grown  up;  and  Thorn  fought  with 
the  other  little  hunters  and  caught  and  carried 
off  a  wife,  and  played  Hving  with  her  and  their 
children  in  a  cave. 

The  men  ate  for  a  long  time,  but  at  last  they 
had  enough.  Then  they  began  to  break  up  the 
tusks  of  the  manmaoth,  and  they  gave  a  piece  to 
each  man  who  had  helped  to  kill  the  animal. 

^^To  wear  on  your  necklace/^  they  said. 

And  they  gave  a  piece  to  Thorn  because  he 
had  found  the  mired  mammoth.  Strongarm 
looked  at  him  proudly  then,  and  the  boy  stood 
straight  and  tall  and  held  his  head  high. 

A  man  standing  near  him  snatched  for  the 
piece  of  tusk,  but  Strongarm  shouted,  ^^Get 
off  r^  and  scowled  and  shook  his  fist. 

The  man  grew  angry  and  raised  his  stone  ax. 
Strongarm  snatched  his,  and  in  a  minute  there 
was  a  clash  of  stone  axes.  The  other  men  stood 
around  and  watched.  They  loved  a  good  fight. 
Before  long  Strongarm^s  ax  crashed  down  on 
the  man's  head,  and  he  fell  over  and  lay  still. 

105 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

The  others  looked  at  him,  and  then  went  on 
breaking  up  the  tusks. 

After  that  every  man  grew  busy,  and  began 
to  cut  as  much  meat  from  the  big  bones  of  the 
mammoth  as  he  could  carry.  One  bone  was  all 
cut  bare.  Three  men  standing  near  it  whispered 
together.  Then  they  Hfted  the  bone  and  car- 
ried it  toward  a  man  who  could  not  make  axes 
and  was  too  lazy  to  hunt.  They  set  it  down 
before  him. 

^^This  is  your  prize/'  they  said,  without  a 
smile. 

Everybody  was  looking. 

The  man  turned  red  and  snatched  a  spear. 
But  the  other  men  ran  away  and  laughed.  And 
everybody  laughed. 

Then  the  people  started  homeward,  carrying 
the  mammoth  meat.  Thorn  said  good-bye  to 
his  grandfather  for  a  while  and  went  home  with 
his  mother.  Old  Hickory  and  his  family  went 
along  with  Strongarm  and  his  family,  and  the 
children  ran  through  the  bushes  and  scared  up 
the  wild  rabbits  and  porcupines. 

106 


THE  FEAST  OF  MAMMOTH'S  MEAT 

When  they  reached  the  cave,  Thorn  told  Pine- 
knot  all  over  again  about  the  mammoth.  And 
he  scratched  a  picture  on  the  piece  of  tusk  to 
show  him.  Holding  up  the  picture  he  said, 
''This  is  the  way  the  angry  mamimoth  looked. 
His  mouth  was  open,  and  his  trunk  was  up. 
When  still  a  long  way  off,  the  men  heard  him 
trumpeting.'^ 

Then  Thorn  made  another  picture  of  the 
mammoth.  In  it  he  showed  the  big  body  with 
the  long  hair,  and  the  turned-up  tusks,  the  long 
trunk,  the  small  eyes,  and  the  shaggy  ears. 

Thorn  was  very  happy  that  evening,  as  he  sat 
in  his  old  place  by  the  fire.  Pineknot  sat  beside 
him,  and  Wow  wow  lay  at  his  feet. 


107 


CHAPTER  XV 


I  THE  RED  MEN  OF  OUR  OWN  COUNTRY  IN  THE 
STONE  AGE 


Last  summer  a  little  boy  went  to  visit  his 
grandfatlier  who  Uved  near  one  of  the  beauti- 
jful  lakes  in  the  northern  part  of  our  own  land. 
The  family  doctor  was  very  kind  to  the  boy 
and  often  took  him  on  long  walks  into  the 

coimtry. 

One  day,  as 
they  were  going 
through  the  woods 
together,  the  boy 
said  to  his  friend, 
^'Grandpa  says 
that  when  he  first 
came  here,  red 
men  lived  all  about 
X  NOETH  AMERICAN  INDIAN  Mm,  aud  that  they 

108 


THE  RED  MEN  OF  OUR  OWN  COUNTRY 


made  their  houses  of  skins  and  called  them 
wigwams.  Afterwards  the  red  men  were  all 
moved  to  the  west  and  given  land  there.  But 
grandpa  says  that  for  years  after  they  went 
away,  he  used  to  find  their  arrow  heads  and 
stone  axes  as  he  turned  up  the  ground  in 
plowing.  I  wish  that  I  could  find  an  arrow 
head!'^ 

As  the  doctor  walked  on  he 
pointed  to  a  pebble  half  buried 
in  the  sand  beside  the  path. 
The  boy  stooped;  there  was 
a  beautiful  arrow  head!  He 
was  very  glad.  Seeing  that 
he  was  pleased,  the  doctor 
took  him  to  his  office  and 
showed  him  himdreds  of  ar- 
row heads.  Some  of  them  were  small  and 
finely  chipped. 

''These  are  bird  arrows,'^  the  doctor  said. 

Then  he  showed  large  arrows. 

''These  are  for  killing  buffalo  and  other  big 
game.'' 

109 


A  STONE  ARROW 
HEAD 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

And  there  were  stone  axes  and  hammers. 
Lastly,  the  doctor  showed  him  something  that 
looked  Uke  a  Httle,  very  old  hatchet. 
The  boy  turned  it  over  and  over 
and  looked  at  it.  It  was  all  weather 
stained,  and  reddish-brown  and 
green. 

^^This  is  not  stone/'  the  boy  said 
at  last. 

''No/'  said  the  doctor,  ''that 
is  a  copper  hatchet.  I  was  very 
glad  to  get  that  because  there  are 
not  many  of  them  found  now.  You  know 
that  when  Columbus  came  to  our  country, 
red  men  lived  all  over  the  land.  They  were 
in  what  we  call  the  Stone  Age;  that  is,  they 
made  their  tools  and  weapons  of  stone.  But 
there  are  great  lumps  of  copper  beside  one 
of  our  lakes  here.  Now  copper,  you  know,  is 
a  rather  soft  metal,  and  the  red  men  about  here 
learned  to  pound  it  into  shape  for  weapons. 
They  called  both  their  stone  hatchets  and  cop- 
per hatchets  'tomahawks.'  ' 

110 


A  STONE  AX 


THE  RED  MEN  OF  OUR  OWN  COUNTRY 

^'Red  men  never  learned  to  melt  iron  and 
make  tools  of  it  as  we  do,  though  there  was 
plenty  of  iron  in  the  mountains  among  which 
many  tribes  lived.  The  red  men  never  got  be- 
yond the  Stone  Age  and  into  the  Iron  Age  as 
white  men  did/' 

^^  Where  did  you  get  all  these  beautiful  stone 
things  ?''  the  boy  asked  after  a  while,  looking 
at  them  with  longing  eyes. 

^^I  have  been  years  in  getting  them  to- 
gether/' the  doctor  said.  ^^Many  of  them  I 
found  myself,  on  my  walks  through  the  country. 
Others  I  bought  from  the  people  who  found 
them." 

^^You  must  love  them  very  much/'  said  the 
boy. 

^^I  do/'  said  his  friend,  ^^and  some  day  I  shall 
give  them  all  to  a  museima  where  they  will  be 
kept  for  people  to  see." 


Ill 


CHAPTER  XVI 

HOW  STONE  WEAPONS  OF   THE   CAVE  MEN  WERE 
FIRST   FOUND 

If  you  should  cross  the  broad  ocean  that 
lies  toward  the  rising  sun,  you  would  come  to  a 
beautiful  country  called  France.  Here  grow 
the  olive,  the  orange,  and  the  grape;  and  the 
mulberry,  on  which  the  silk  worm  feeds.  But 
it  is  not  with  these  that  we  have  to  do  to-day, 
but  with  some  strange  old  things  that  once  lay 
buried  far  below  the  soil  in  which  they  grow. 

About  seventy  years  ago,  a  man  in  that 
country  who  sold  sand  and  gravel  found  that 
his  own  gravel  pits  were  worked  out.  He  went 
to  the  banks  of  a  river — the  river  Sonmie — 
near  by  and  found  a  good  gravel  bed,  which  he 
began  to  cut  down  and  cart  off  to  sell.  He 
dug  away  at  the  hill  for  months  and  got  far 
below  the  top  of  the  ground.    Then  one  day 

112 


HOW  STONE  WEAPONS  WERE  FOUND 

his  spade  struck  something  hard;  he  dug  it  out 
and  saw  that  it  was  a  very  large  bone. 

^^That  is  a  queer  bone/^  he  said  to  himself. 
^M  wonder  what  animal  it  belonged  to.  It  is 
too  big  to  have  been  the  bone  of  a  horse  or  a 
cow.  It  is  big  enough  to  have  belonged  to  an 
elephant.  Well,  no  matter  what  it  came  from/' 
he  said,  throwing  it  aside,  ^^it  is  neither  sand 
nor  gravel,  so  it  is  nothing  to  me.'^ 

As  he  dug  on,  he  threw  out  some  rudely 
shaped  stones. 

^^ These  are  queer,  too,''  he  said,  ^^but  they 
will  not  sell  for  gravel."  And  away  went  the 
stones  from  his  shovel. 

That  evening  a  learned  man  from  Paris,  the 
most  beautiful  city  of  France,  was  walking  be- 
side the  river  and  looking  at  the  sunset  clouds 
in  sky  and  water. 

There  in  the  pit  lay  the  big  bones.  He  saw 
them.  Forgotten  were  clouds  and  sky!  He 
knew  that  he  was  looking  at  the  bones  of  some 
animal  long  since  gone  from  the  earth!  For 
years  after  that,  he  watched  the  work  in  the 

113 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

gravel  pits  and  carried  away  any  bones  and 
shaped  stones  that  were  dug  out.  He  studied 
them  and  found  that  some  of  the  bones  were 
those  of  the  maromoth,  and  that  there  were 
bones  of  the  rhinoceros  too. 

At  last  he  showed  the  bones  and  the  stones 
to  the  learned  men  in  Paris,  and  said,  ^^  These 
stones  are  very  old;  they  are  as  old  as  the 
ground  in  which  they  lay.  They  were  shaped 
by  men  who  knew  very  little  and  had  very  ht- 
tle,  and  who  used  them  for  weapons.  Near  the 
stone  weapons  were  these  bones  of  the  mam- 
moth and  the  rhinoceros.  So  those  animals 
lived  at  the  time  the  men  did,  and  in  this 
country/^ 

The  learned  men  Hstened,  but  did  not  be- 
lieve what  he  said. 

A  few  years  after  that,  however, — about 
twenty  years, — other  shaped  stones  were  found 
on  the  banks  of  the  river  that  flows  by  the 
great  city  of  London,  in  England,  across  the 
narrow  water  from  France.  And  in  Denmark, 
another  country  near  France,  still  more  shaped 

114 


HOW  STONE  WEAPONS  WERE  FOUND 

stones  were  found,  and,  with  them,  bones  of 
the  reindeer. 

Then  the  learned  men  had  to  believe  that 
men  who  shaped  stones  once  Uved  in  England 


PICTUKE    OF    REINDEER,   SCRATCHED    ON    SLATE;  FOUND  IN  A  CAViS 
IN   FRANCE 


and  France  and  Denmark;  and  that  at  the  same 
time  lived  the  mammoth,  the  rhinoceros,  and 
the  reindeer;  and  that  the  men  had  very  Uttle 
and  knew  very  Uttle,  and  made  the  shaped 
stones  for  weapons. 

Soon  after  this,  chipped  stones  were  found 
all  the  world  over.  More  than  that,  there  were 
people  Hving  who  still   were   chipping  thenu 

11^ 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

The  Eskimo,  who  hve  in  the  frozen  north  of 
our  own  country,  make  their  weapons  of  stone. 


ESKIMO  BY  THEIB  WINTER  HUTS;  DRAWN  BY  AN  ESKIMO 

So  you  see  that  by  the  Age  of  Stone  is  meant 
a  time  when  the  metals — tin  and  copper  and 
iron — ^were  not  known;  and  when  stone,  horn, 
bone,  shell,  and  wood  were  used  for  tools  and 
weapons.  The  cave  men  were  in  the  Stone  Age 
long  ago.  The  Eskimo  are  in  the  Stone  Age 
now.  And  the  American  red  men,  though  they 
were  still  in  the  Stone  Age,  were  beginning  to 
learn  the  use  of  one  metal — copper. 

And  the  people  of  the  shell  mounds — ^how  do 
we  know  about  them?    In   Denmark  to-day 

116 


I 


HOW  STONE  WEAPONS  WERE  FOUND 

you  may  see  shell  mounds.  They  are  the  old 
hunting  and  fishing  villages.  They  are  of  dif- 
ferent sizes;  some  are  a  quarter  of  a  mile  long 
and  half  as  wide.  They  are 
built  up  of  things  that  the 
hunters  and  fishermen  threw 
away:  oyster  and  mussel  and 
periwinkle  shells;  bones  of 
the  wolf,  the  hyena,  the  dog; 
of  wild  duck,  swan,  and 
grouse;  of  cod,  herring,  floun- 
der, and  other  deep-sea  fish. 
Many  of  the  bones  had  been 
split  open  for  the  purpose  of 
extracting  the  marrow.  Be- 
sides bones,  there  are  also 
pieces  of  burnt  wood;  and 
there  is  sea  plant,  which 
may  have  given  salt. 

The  stone  tools  and  weap- 
ons found  in  the  heaps  are 
axes,  knives,  hammers,  awls,    ^  ^^*  ^^^'^  foun© 

m  A   CAVE   Ilf  EN«- 

lance  heads,  and  sling  stones       land 

117 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE  " 

— all  of  rude  make.  There  are  also  bits  of  rude 
pottery,  which  show  that  these  men  knew  a  Uttle 
more  than  the  cave  men;  they  knew  how  to 
bake  clay.  They  were  ahead  of  the  cave  men 
also  in  having  one  tamed  animal — the  dog.  No 
bones  were  found  of  any  tamed  animal  except 
the  dog,  and  this  seems  to  show  that  it  was 
the  earhest  animal  tamed  by  man. 

Mounds  hke  those  in  Denmark  are  found  in 
many  other  countries:  in  our  own  land  where 
the  red  men  lived;  in  Africa,  the  land  of  the 
black  man;  and  in  Asia,  where  the  brown  man 
lives.  Wherever  man  has  led  a  wandering  life, 
eating  fish  and  leaving  their  bones  behind  him, 
these  heaps  are  foimd;  and  they  are  always  by 
the  sea  or  by  a  river. 


118 


CHAPTER  XVII 

HOW     THE     EARTH     LOOKED    WHEN     THE    SHELIi 
MEN  AND  THE   CAVE   MEN  LIVED 

At  the  time  when  the  cave  men  and  the 
shell  men  Uved,  the  earth  looked  much  as  it 
looks  now,  as  far  as  hills  and  rivers  and  trees 
and  grass  could  make  it.  The  earth  had  its 
seasons — ^its  spring  and  simmier,  its  autumn 
and  winter.  Then,  as  now,  the  forests  dropped 
their  leaves  in  autumn.  Many  leaves  of  oak, 
maple,  poplar,  and  hickory  fell  upon  clayey 
soil  and  left  their  imprints;  and  the  clay  after- 
wards turned  to  stone,  and  the  imprints  show 
us  that  the  forests  of  the  cave  men  were  like 
our  own. 

The  insects,  too,  were  the  same  as  those  of 
our  own  fields.  We  know  this  because  the  gima 
flowed  down  the  pine  trees  then  as  now;  and 

119 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

ants,  crickets,  butterflies,  grasshoppers,  and 
spiders  visiting  the  tree  were  held  and  covered. 
The  gum  turned  to  stone  and  made  the  amber 
of  a  later  time  and  kept  the  insects  within  it 
unchanged,  and  there  within  the  amber  we  see 
the  insects  that  the  cave  men  knew. 

The  animals,  also,  were  much  the  same  as 
those  of  our  own  time.  It  seems  strange  to  us 
that  at  that  time  the  reindeer  and  the  mammoth 
should  have  lived  in  the  same  country;  because 
the  reindeer  of  our  time  lives  in  a  cold  country, 
and  the  elephant,  which  is  like  the  mammoth, 
lives  in  a  hot  country.  But  before  the  time 
of  the  cave  men,  it  was  warm  in  England  and 
France,  and  the  manmaoth  went  to  live  there 
then.  Afterwards,  it  became  colder;  but  the 
manmaoth  liked  it  there,  so  he  grew  himself  a 
coat  of  thick  woolly  hair  to  keep  out  the  cold 
and  stayed,  while  the  reindeer  lived  there  only 
in  winter  and  went  northward  in  summer. 

We  know  that  the  mammoth  had  this  heavy 
coat  of  wool  because,  in  the  cold  coimtry  of 
Siberia,  some  time  since,  there  was  a  mammoth 

120 


HOW  THE  EARTH  LOOKED 

thawed  out  of  the  ice;  and  also  because  the 
cave  men  have  left  a  drawing  that  pictures 
the  long  hair.  It  was  about  a  hundred  years 
ago,  when  a  fisherman  on  the  frozen  Lena  River 


DRAWING  OP  A  MAMMOTH,   ON  A  PIECE  OF  A  MAMMOTH  TUSK;     ) 
FOUND  IN  A   CAVE   IN   FRANCE 

saw  an  iceberg  of  odd  shape.  Two  years  later, 
he  saw  the  tusks  of  a  mammoth  standing  out 
from  it.  And  five  years  after  that,  all  the  ice 
had  melted  from  around  it,  and  the  big  body 
of  the  mammoth  lay  upon  the  sand.  There 
was  a  flowing  mane  on  the  neck,  and  the  body 
was  covered  with  reddish  wool  and  long  black 
hair.  The  people  about  the  coimtry  there  cut 
up  the  flesh  as  food  for  their  dogs,  and  the 

121 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

bones  and  tusks  were  sent  to  the  museum  in 
St.  Petersburg. 

Thousands  of  teeth  and  tusks  of  mammoths 
have  been  brought  up  by  the  nets  of  fishermen 
in  the  North  Sea,  that  washes  England.  And 
whole  islands  along  that  coast  are  made  up 
of  nothing  but  ice  and  sand  and  the  teeth 
and  tusks  of  mammoths.  During  every  storm, 
pieces  of  this  old  ivory  are  washed  loose  and 
cast  ashore;  and  the  fishermen  sell  them. 

It  is  thought  that  what  is  now  the  North  Sea 
was,  at  the  time  the  elephants  Uved  there,  a 
swamp  in  which  the  animals  went  to  drink 
and  bathe,  and  in  which,  at  times,  they  became 
mired;  and  that  this  is  why  so  many  of  their 
bones  are  found  along  that  coast. 

Manamoths  were  very  Uke  big  elephants,  with 
tusks  that  turned  up.  There  are  none  on  earth 
now.  Neither  are  there  any  cave  tigers.  And 
the  two-horned  rhinoceros  has  gone,  and  the 
great  snowy  owl. 

Caverns  and  rock  shelters  in  which  men  of 
the  Stone  Age  lived  have  been  found  in  many 

122 


HOW  THE  EARTH  LOOKED 

places  in  our  own  country  and  in  other  lands. 
But  caves  are  few,  even  in  limestone  countries; 
and  these  early,  stone-chipping  men  Uved  the 
world  over.  So,  in  the  open  places  and  in  for- 
ests among  wild  beasts,  they  must  have  dug 
pits  for  safety  or  made  rude  huts  of  earth  or 
branches. 

In  caverns  there  have  been  more  bones  of 
horse  and  reindeer  found  than  of  any  other  ani- 
mals; and  this  shows  that  the  early  hunters  did 
best  in  killing  these  animals.  There  have  been 
few  bones  of  mammoths  found;  but  that  is  be- 
cause those  bones  were  mostly  too  heavy  for 
the  cave  people  to  carry  away.  It  is  likely 
that  the  flesh  was  eaten  on  the  spot  where  the 
animal  was  killed. 


123 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

HOW    EARLY   MEN    BELIEVED    THAT    ALL    THINGS 
THAT  MOVE   ARE   ALIVE 

All  early  peoples  made  their  songs  by  sing- 
ing over  and  over  a  line  or  two.  And  into  these 
words  they  put  what  they  were  thinking  most 
about;  or  hoping  for.  They  beheved  that  the 
whispered  wish  went  into  the  thing  they  sscng 
to,  and  helped  to  bring  about  the  thing  they 
hoped  for.  So  the  old  axmaker,  in  time  to  his 
chipping,  sings  over  and  over  to  the    arrow 

head: 

"I  give  you  the  eye  of  the  eagle, 

To  find  the  rabbit's  heart. 

I  give  you  the  eye  of  the  eagle, 

To  find  the  rabbit's  heart." 

And  the  mother  sings  to  the  child : 

''Though  a  baby, 
Soon  a-hunting  after  berries 
Will  be  going." 
124 


HOW  EARLY  MEN  BELIEVED 

Early  men  believed  that  since  they  them- 
selves are  alive  and  move,  all  other  things  that 
move  also  are  alive,  and  have  feeUngs  and  hkes 
and  disUkes  as  men  have.  The  rustUng  leaves, 
the  waving  grass,  a  rolling  stone,  a  drifting 
cloud,  the  rising  moon — all  are  to  them  alive, 
and  many  of  them  are  to  be  feared. 

The  speech  of  the  cave  and  the  shell  men  was 
made  up  of  few  words,  and  the  meaning  was 
helped  out  by  motions  of  the  hands  and  body. 
They  knew  Uttle  outside  of  their  forest  life,  and 
probably  could  not  count  beyond  three.  But 
the  power  to  grow  was  in  them,  and  from  such 
rude  beginnings  came  the  men  who  built  the 
cities  of  Paris  and  London. 


125 


CHAPTER  XIX 


THE    PEOPLE    OF    OUR     TIME    WHO    WERE    MOST 
LIKE   THE    CAVE   MEN 

Up  to  a  short  time  ago,  on  the  island  of  Tas- 
mania, near  Austraha,  there  hved  a  people 
more  nearly  Uke  the  cave  men  than  any  people 
we  know  about.    Their  weapons  were  made  of 

limestone  and 
were  without 
handles,  be- 
cause they  did 
not  know  how 
to  fix  handles  to  them.  Their  boat  was  a  raft 
of  bark  bundles  and  was  pushed  by  a  pole. 
They  Uved  under  shelters  made  of  boughs, 
and  made  fire  by  twirling  a  stick  on  a  piece 
of  soft  wood.  They  drew  rude  pictures  on 
bark;    and    they    were    quick    and    cunning 

126 


A  FLINT  knife;   FOUND  IN  AUSTRALIA 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  OUR  TIME 

about  hunting,  but  knew  little  more.  They 
believed  that  the  shadow  of  a  thing  was  its 
other  self — the  self  that  traveled  in  dreams 
and  that  Hved  after  the  body  died;  and  that 
the  echo  was  the  talking  shadow.  Like  the 
cave  men  these  people  were  hunters,  without 
any  tamed  animal  to  help  them. 


127 


SUGGESTIONS  TO  TEACHEKS 


The  teacher  who  wishes  to  make  the  most  of 
this  work  will  take  her  class  to  visit  a  museum,  if  a 
museum  is  available  ;  or,  if  not,  she  will  do  what  she 
can  to  show  her  class  actual  specimens  of  the  things 
described  in  the  story. 

In  a  museum  primitive  implements  should  be  ob- 
served, and  specimens  of  animals  and  birds.  Pictures 
of  caves,  pieces  of  stalactites,  stalagmites,  of  lime- 
stone, quartz,  and  flint  would  be  of  value,  either  seen 
in  the  museum  or,  better  still,  looked  at  and  handled 
in  the  classroom  as  the  story  is  read.  A  tendon  pro- 
cured from  the  butcher  and  dried  for  a  few  weeks  and 
then  pulled  to  pieces  would  show  primitive  thread. 

Out  of  doors  a  limestone  cliff  showing  stratification 
would  be  the  best  kind  of  illustration  to  explain  both 
the  formation  of  caves  and  the  gradual  burying  and 
preservation  of  animal  bones  and  other  primitive  relics. 

In  the  schoolroom,  again,  on  a  large  stand  might 
be  made  a  model  of  a  hilly  country.  A  cave  could  be 
shown,  shaped  of  two  upright  stones  and  a  crosspiece, 

129 


THE  CAVE  BOY  OF  THE  AGE  OF  STONE 

the  whole  covered  with  sods  and  earth;  and  animals 
and  men  might  be  made  of  paper  or  of  clay. 

Various  scenes  from  the  story  are  adapted  to 
dramatization ;  for  instance,  the  visit  of  the  cave  bear, 
the  making  of  fire,  work  in  the  stone  yard,  or  the  feast 
of  mammoth's  meat. 

For  those  who  wish  to  read  further  in  a  subject  so 
suggestive  along  the  lines,  not  only  of  social  life,  but 
of  history,  geography,  and  nature  study,  the  following 
books  will  be  full  of  interest : 

The  Story  of  Primitive  Man.  Clodd.  D.  Appleton  & 
Company y  50  cents.  (If  only  one  book  on  the  subject  is 
purchased,  this  is  the  most  valuable  for  the  price.) 

Early  Man  in  Britain.    DawJcins. 

Cave  Hunting.    DawTcins, 

Ancient  Stone  Implements.    Evans. 

Primitive  Man.     Figuier, 

The  Origin  of  Inventions.    Mason. 

Woman's  Share  in  Primitive  Culture.    Mason. 

Some  First  Steps  in  Primitive  Culture.     Starr. 

Myths  and  Dreams.     Clodd. 

Primitive  Culture.     Tylor. 

Prehistoric  Times.     LvMock. 

Animals  of  the  Past.     Lucas. 

The  Beginnings  of  Art.     Grosse. 

Prehistoric  Europe.     GeiMe. 

Materiaux.    Massenet. 

Phases  of  Animal  Life,  Past  and  Present.    LyddecJcer. 

130 


SUGGESTIONS  TO  TEACHERS 

Eoyal  Natural  History.    Lyddeclcer. 

Ancient  Quarry  Sites.     Holmes. 

The  Language  of  Paleolithic  Man.    Brintoru 

Ancient  Society.    Morgan, 

The  Descent  of  Man.    Darivin. 

The  Voyage  of  the  Vega.    Nordenslcjold. 

The  History  of  America,  Vol.  I.    Payne. 

The  Story  of  Ab.     Waterloo. 

The  Author. 


(18) 


B  37083 


611218 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


